After spending the previous 39 Thanksgivings behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Ricky Jackson sat at the dinner table of UC College of Law Professor Mark Godsey thankful for his freedom.

Jackson, who walked out of a Cleveland courthouse a free man on Nov. 21, 2014, was wrongfully convicted of a gruesome murder in 1975. Nearly four decades later and with the help of UC’s Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) -- which Godsey directs -- Jackson took on the tragic distinction as the nation’s longest-incarcerated exoneree. Also cleared were co-defendants and brothers Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman.

“The English language just doesn’t fit what I’m feeling right now,” Jackson told reporters immediately after his release.

Within days, Jackson made a trip to UC to personally thank the students and faculty from the OIP for all they had done, which included starting a gofundme.com account that raised more than $44,000 in less than two weeks to help him begin to put his life back together.

“Ricky Jackson is one of the strongest men I know,” said OIP attorney Brian Howe, who worked on the case. “I can’t even imagine what it was like to be in prison for 39 years for a crime you didn’t commit.”

Jackson’s nightmare began at the age of just 19 after a 12-year-old boy testified that Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers committed a bloody attack on businessman Harry Franks, who had just left a Cleveland grocery store. The 59-year-old victim, who sold money orders to local convenience stores, had been beaten, doused with acid, shot twice through the chest, robbed and left to die on the sidewalk.

Though no physical evidence linked the three men to the crime, the state produced Eddie Vernon, the neighborhood paperboy, who claimed from the stand that he saw Jackson gun down Franks then turn the gun on an occupant inside the store, who was also seriously wounded.

Vernon’s story stuck from 1975 until 2011 when a reporter from the Cleveland Scene, an alternative weekly magazine, began to punch holes in the state’s case. Not long after, the OIP, based in UC’s College of Law, began investigating.

After years of digging through each of the trial transcripts, conducting witness interviews and gathering evidence, the state’s case crumbled when witness Vernon, now 52, took the stand and recanted his childhood statements claiming police had intimidated him into concocting the story.

Jackson said he had forgiven Vernon long ago. “He was a 12-year-old kid who was manipulated and coerced by the police. My heart started softening toward him because I knew he was as much of a victim as I was in the whole situation.”

Prior to this case, UC’s OIP had helped free 17 inmates who served nearly 300 combined years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
-- J. Bach

Measuring brain tsunamis

The potential for doctors to measure damaging brain “tsunamis” in injured patients without opening the skull has moved a step closer to reality, thanks to pioneering research at the UC Neuroscience Institute. This discovery has the potential to revolutionize care for patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Electrical disturbances that spread through an injured brain like a tsunami can now be detected by placing electrodes on the scalp. Until this discovery, these “tsunamis” could only be detected by invasive surgery. The research, led by Jed Hartings, UC research associate professor, may lead to new therapies that would halt the brain “tsunamis” and reduce disability in people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury. This research is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Discovery of new target for treating kidney cancer

Researchers at UC and the Cincinnati Cancer Center have discovered a new target for treating kidney cancer. Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska, member of the UC Cancer Institute and professor in UC’s department of cancer biology, explains they have discovered a “membrane channel” that promotes growth of kidney cancer tumors. Targeting this channel therapeutically could lead to more treatments for a disease that currently has few treatment options.
-- E. Wendler

Morgens Hall is her sister after all -- the two residence halls were part of a trio known as the “Three Sisters” built in the ‘60s -- and in 2013, a $35 million renovation transformed Morgens into a modern beauty dressed in a brilliant glass exterior.

The nerve!

Now it’s Scioto’s turn for a makeover. In December, UC began a renovation to Scioto that will mirror the work done on Morgens, and a remade Scioto is expected to welcome more than 400 students to apartment-style living in fall semester 2016.

The most noticeable change will be to Scioto’s facade. Two thousand glass panels featuring a high-tech design will replace Scioto’s concrete-and-brick exterior.

The $35 million project is being partially funded by approximately $29 million in “green bonds,” a new segment of the municipal bond market in which proceeds are used to fund environmentally friendly projects. UC will become the first public university in the U.S. to bring a green bond to market. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the country’s first green bond in higher education in September 2014.

Scioto’s new glass panels will give the building a greater insulation value than the original exterior. Each is made of two quarter-inch thick windows with a half inch of air space separating them. The panels will be partially adorned with a white linear pattern called “fritting.” The reflective pattern adds another degree of insulation to the glass by decreasing solar heat gain by 20 percent, and it also serves as a visual warning to errant birds. On the inside, the fritting gives the floor-to-ceiling glass walls something similar in appearance to a chair rail.

The renovation is expected to earn Scioto a minimum of silver certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council. Among other eco-friendly updates: energy-efficient mechanical systems, 100 percent LED lighting and an energy-recovery system which will capture exhaust heat and use it to warm the fresh air pumped into the building from outdoors.

Scioto, Morgens and the third “Sister,” Sawyer Hall, were built in 1964 by architectural firm F.W. Pressler & Associates for about $6.5 million. At the time, the residence halls were meant to usher in a then-new concept in UC housing: high-rise structures. After serving as a home away from home for thousands of students over more than 40 years, Scioto closed in 2008.

Scioto’s renovation was partially motivated by increased demand for on-campus housing resulting from record-setting student enrollment and greater desire for such accommodations by upperclassmen. UC currently has an enrollment of 43,691, the highest in its almost-200-year history.

A different plan is being considered for Sawyer Hall, which was razed in 2006, leaving behind little more than her foundation. Options for Sawyer include turning her into a low- or mid-rise building with dining center service. Until then, she’ll be left as the jealous sister.
-- T. Robinette