Terry J. Harrington and Curtis W. McGhee Jr., Respondents
Paul D. Clement, Counsel of Record
In 1977, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of retired police officer John Schweer in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The two African American teenagers had been involved in an auto-theft ring with Kevin Hughes, who was the primary witness against them in their murder trials. In 2001, McGhee and Harrington obtained a police report showing that there were significant inconsistencies in Hughes’s testimony that prosecuting attorneys David Richter and Joseph Hrvol had covered up. McGhee and Harrington appealed their convictions. In 2003, the Iowa Supreme Court ordered that they receive a…
