Betty Tyson, a woman who was wrongfully convicted of a 1973 murder after serving 25 years in jail, has passed away in upstate New York, according to her sister.
Tyson, 75, passed away from a heart attack on August 17 in a hospital in Rochester. He will be laid to rest on Friday, according to his sister Delorise Thomas. Thomas highlighted that her sister had recently accomplished a significant milestone by spending the same amount of time in freedom following her incarceration as she had in prison.
“It was pleasant. Thomas, 72, who also shared a home with Tyson in Rochester, said over the phone that she was free. She amused herself by driving around, playing cards, and attending various parties. She also enjoyed her life.
In February 1974, Tyson was given a sentence of 25 years to life in jail for killing Timothy Haworth. The Philadelphia business consultant was discovered strangled with his necktie in an alley the following day after leaving his Rochester hotel around midnight on May 24, 1973, reportedly in search of a prostitute.
Tyson’s murder conviction was overturned by a judge in May 1998 after finding that the police had suppressed favorable evidence.
The oldest female prisoner in the state of New York at the time of her release, Tyson had been incarcerated since she was 25 years old.
In 1999, about 18 months after exiting Bedford Hills Correctional Facility north of New York City, Tyson told The Associated Press that while she was inside, she let go of her fury and found comfort in the Bible. She mentored AIDS-affected women, completed an apprenticeship as a printer, taught aerobics, and gained the nickname “Mom” among the younger prisoners for being a role model prisoner.
According to Tyson, “all that resentment and anger left me in the late ’70s.” Although I wasn’t perfect, the reality remains that I didn’t murder anyone.
Tyson dropped out of school at the age of 14, grew up in a family of eight without a father, and later turned to prostitution to support his heroin habit. On the basis of confessions they said were coerced out of them by police, as well as the testimony of two adolescent runaways, one of whom later admitted that the same officer had terrified him into lying, she and another prostitute, John Duval, were found guilty of killing Haworth.
After it was learned via a previously undiscovered police report that the second adolescent witness had claimed not to have seen either Tyson or Duval with the victim, Tyson’s conviction was reversed. In 1999, Duval’s conviction was reversed.
Tyson was awarded a $1.25 million settlement from the City of Rochester, but he would face financial difficulties once he was released. She was earning $143 a week cleaning a daycare facility when she met with AP since she was unable to get work as a printer.
She has an extremely generous nature. Anyone who required assistance was helped by her, Thomas said on Wednesday. “I tried to tell her, ‘You know you can’t help everyone, now,'” I said. Did she? She made every effort she could.
According to Thomas, Tyson spent time with a younger sister who passed away less than a month ago as well as an older sister who was ill and died in April in the months prior to her heart attack. She cherished her large, “crazy family,” Thomas remarked.
Thomas remarked, “Talk about our mother. We all come together and laugh & talk about the old times and eat excellent food.
Just five months after Tyson’s release, their mother, Mattie Lawson Buchanan, passed away from emphysema.