Governor Pardons Retarded Man Who Was ‘Manipulated’ By Police

A retarded man who was sent to prison 8-1/2 years ago for murder won a pardon Friday after the governor concluded that police “manipulated a weak mind” into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit.

“I didn’t do what they said. I’m just glad it’s over,” Johnny Lee Wilson, 30, said after passing through the towering iron gates of Jefferson City Correctional Center.

Wilson had admitted beating an elderly woman to death and setting her house on fire. He pleaded no contest in 1987 to avoid the possibility of the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On Thursday, however, Gov. Mel Carnahan concluded after a year-long review that Wilson confessed to please police. Investigators “manipulated a weak mind,” Carnahan said.

Wilson’s IQ is estimated to be in the 60s.

Pauline Martz, 79, was bound and gagged, beaten and left to die in her burning home in Aurora.