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Frank Cartee

Two armed men robbed a bank in Crawford, Georgia on December 18, 1936. A third accomplice picked the robbers up in a car and they escaped with over $3,000. Several weeks later, Frank Cartee and Martin Prisament (also referenced as Martin Prisonment) were arrested for this crime.

At the time of this arrest, police stated that Cartee and Prisament had in their possession three pistols, a shotgun, ropes, adhesive money bags, and ammunition. They were driving a car with a South Carolina license plate, but were also in possession of a New York license plate registered to Frank Cartee under the name of Frank Johnson. After their arrest, four eyewitnesses identified Prisament and Cartee as the robbers.

At trial, the two men presented an alibi as their defense. They provided evidence confirming that they had boarded a bus in New York at 5:25 a.m. on December 20, 1936. The bus took them to Greenville, South Carolina, where they arrived early in the morning. They provided numerous witnesses to confirm that they had been in New York in the days preceding this bus trip, including witnesses to confirm their presence in New York on December 16, 17, 18 and 19. The prosecution, however, claimed that the men could have driven to South Carolina to commit the robbery and made it back to New York in time to catch the 5:25 a.m. bus there on December 20. Both men were convicted by a jury in June 1937. Prisament was sentenced to three years in prison and Cartee was sentenced to twelve.

Two years after the conviction of Cartee and Prisament, a man named George Slade was arrested in connection with a different robbery, and confessed that he had committed the Crawford robbery with accomplice John Gardner. Slade and Gardner were identified in a lineup by bank employees and their story was otherwise confirmed. On July 12, 1939, after each serving thirty months in prison, Cartee and Prisament were unconditionally pardoned based on innocence by President Roosevelt.

- Meghan Barrett Cousino

State:GA - Federal
County:
Most Serious Crime:Robbery
Reported Crime Date:1936
Convicted:1937
Exonerated:1939
Sentence:12 years
Race/Ethnicity:Caucasian
Sex:Male
Age at the date of crime:29
Contributing Factors:Mistaken Witness ID