Betty Tyson

{{Short description|African-American woman wrongfully convicted (1948–2023)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} '''Betty Tyson''' ({{Nee|'''Dove'''}}) (June 29, 1948 – August 17, 2023) was a black woman known for her wrongful conviction in the murder of 52-year-old businessman Timothy Haworth in 1973 in Rochester, New York.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Betty Tyson - National Registry of Exonerations |url=https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3702 |access-date=2023-08-23 |website=www.law.umich.edu}}</ref><ref name="nyt-obit">{{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Sam |date=2023-08-22 |title=Betty Tyson, Who Was Wrongfully Imprisoned for Murder, Dies at 75 |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/22/nyregion/betty-tyson-dead.html |access-date=2023-08-23}}</ref> Tyson, who was 24 at the time of her arrest, spent 25 years in prison, becoming New York State's longest-serving female inmate until her release on May 28, 1998.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1998-05-28 |title=Conviction Canceled, She Is Free For the First Time in 25 Years (Published 1998) |work=The New York Times |language=en |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/28/nyregion/conviction-canceled-she-is-free-for-the-first-time-in-25-years.html |access-date=2023-08-23 |last1=Gross |first1=Jane }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dobbin |first=Ben |date=1999-12-19 |title=Woman's Years in Prison Make Freedom Tough |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-dec-19-mn-45451-story.html |access-date=2023-08-23 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Her case prompted allegations of police misconduct, coerced testimony, and the exposure of evidence fabrication by a detective, leading to her eventual exoneration.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Betty Tyson, who spent 25 years in prison for wrongful conviction, dies at age 75 |url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2023/08/18/betty-tyson-dies-she-spent-25-years-in-prison-wrongful-conviction-obit/70424415007/ |access-date=2023-08-23 |website=Democrat and Chronicle |language=en-US}}</ref> After her release, Tyson struggled financially but was known for her positive transformation in prison, where she found religion, earned a general equivalency diploma, and acquired various vocational skills. She is considered to be a symbol of the potential for miscarriages of justice within the American legal system.<ref name="nyt-obit" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Isaac |first=Taunja |date=2014-01-01 |title=MINUS 25 Betty Tyson |url=https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses/8479 |department=Rochester Institute of Technology |journal=Theses}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyson, Betty}} Category:1948 births Category:2023 deaths Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century American women Category:20th-century African-American people Category:20th-century American people Category:21st-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American people Category:21st-century American people Category:American people wrongfully convicted of murder Category:People from Rochester, New York