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Conn. Woman Released On Clemency After Serving 27 Years For Murder

NIANIC, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - A woman who spent the last 27 years behind bars for murder has been released after gaining clemency.

As WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported, Bonnie Jean Foreshaw was granted early release thanks in part to articles written by journalist Andy Thibault.

Earlier this year, the reporter discovered a memo critical to Foreshaw's case.

Conn. Woman Released On Clemency After Serving 27 Years For Murder

"The bombshell was this memo that had been buried for about 24 years. It detailed how the prosecution jacked up charges of premeditated murder of someone she had never met when manslaughter would've been the appropriate charge," Thibault told Schneidau. "By virtue of the publication of this memo, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles reversed the decision and decided to grant Bonnie a clemency hearing."

The memo carried a great deal of weight since it was written by now-Superior Court Judge Jon Blue, who was then a public defender.

Bonnie Jean Foreshaw was sentenced to 45 years in jail for the 1986 murder of Joyce Amos and had been serving her sentence at the York Correctional Institution in Nianic, Conn.

Foreshaw has always maintained she shot the pregnant woman accidentally while trying to defend herself. Amos' unborn son also died from the shooting.

The Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole unanimously approved Foreshaw's release last month.

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