Ronnie Cooper

10 YEARS IN PRISON

In 2010, Ronnie Cooper was convicted in federal court in Tennessee based on allegations that he participated in a drug trafficking ring. Ronnie was tried alongside several codefendants. While the government presented overwhelming evidence against each of Ronnie’s codefendants, the evidence against Ronnie was strikingly thin and relied largely on the testimony of two jailhouse informants, both of whom were seeking leniency in their own cases. Indeed, one of those jailhouse informants received a large downward departure in sentencing to about half his guidelines range following his cooperation in this and one other case. In many ways, Ronnie’s story was a case study in the dangers inherent in joint trials where jurors can struggle to disentangle each defendant’s individual guilt from the group’s perceived collective guilt. Despite the weak evidence against him individually, Ronnie was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

In 2015, lawyers at the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP firm in New York, including Andrew Markquart, took on Ronnie’s case for free. When Andrew moved to Minnesota and joined the Innocence Project of Minnesota in the fall of 2019, he and the Paul, Weiss firm continued to work on Mr. Cooper’s case together.

In November of 2015, the attorneys filed a motion to vacate Ronnie’s sentence based on the government’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. The star trial witness for the prosecution, after agreeing to cooperate with the government, had delivered devastating testimony against the other defendants, but not against Ronnie. In 2015, he told the lawyers that before the trial, he had expressly informed law enforcement officials that Ronnie was not involved in the drug operation. This information was never disclosed to Ronnie’s trial attorney. In 2019, the court ruled that Ronnie was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the factual question of whether the cooperating witness did in fact inform the government of Ronnie’s non-involvement. After the evidentiary hearing, the court found that the cooperating witness’s testimony supported Ronnie’s claim and ordered extensive discovery in advance of a final evidentiary hearing.

Simultaneously, due to the continued efforts of the Great North Innocence Project staff attorney Andrew Markquart, the Paul, Weiss firm, and Ronnie’s investigators, the two jailhouse informants whose testimony provided the bulk of the trial evidence used to convict Ronnie recanted their testimony in full. They acknowledged that they lied in hopes of getting leniency from the government in their own criminal cases.

Faced with a crumbling case, in May of 2020, the government agreed to have Mr. Cooper resentenced to time served. As a result, Ronnie has rejoined his wife and children in Utica, New York approximately 20 years before his sentence was to expire.

In a recent email message to Andrew Markquart, Ronnie said, “I still remember when you told me that you and your firm were going to put together a team of lawyers to work this case and you kept your promise, it brings tears to my eyes when I think about how blessed I am to have your support because nobody has ever fought this hard for me ever and I appreciate that.”