MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man who was wrongfully accused of a 2002 robbery at B.B. King’s Blues Club has filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis and several police officers, claiming they framed him for the crime.
After his conviction was overturned in December 2023, Artis Whitehead was released from prison after 20 years.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, Whitehead claims his wrongful conviction was based almost entirely on "Defendant's fabrication and suppression of evidence."
Whitehead was arrested Jan. 31, 2003, in a robbery in 2002 at B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale Street. In Nov. 2003, Shelby County convicted him of five counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of especially aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of attempted robbery. He was sentenced to consecutive sentences totaling 249 years.
Two decades later, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Fitzgerald vacated Whitehead’s conviction, finding he was entitled to relief on multiple legal grounds, according to TIP. He was released from prison in December 2023 with all charges dismissed.
The recent lawsuit alleges that Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers created a false anonymous tip implicating Whitehead by coercing a man, who was already detained for two other armed robberies, into phoning in a fabricated tip to Crime Stoppers.
Officers also reportedly relied on false eyewitness identifications from victims who described the suspect as being "at least 7 inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter than Mr. Whitehead."
As stated in the lawsuit, "based on the forced of the fabricated evidence and suppression of all exculpatory evidence, Mr. Whitehead was charged, prosecuted, and wrongly convicted of robbery, kidnapping and assault."
Although the lawsuit cannot restore the time Whitehead lost in prison, it aims to "redress the violation of his constitutional rights, secure compensation for the harm caused by the Defendants, and expose these injustices to prevent similar misconduct in the future," according to the filing.
This filing follows a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the patterns and practices at MPD, which found that "MPD policies lack clear guidance on constitutional standards."
