By Dianne Anderson

Deep in the pages of any good mystery novel lies the big whodunit, and there never seems to be a shortage of those kinds of cases for local investigator CJ Ford to handle.

Mainly, because there's no shortage of Black men behind bars.

But unlike so many private eyes in fiction-land in search of the guilty, Ford has spent much of his adult life going after who didn't do it.

He's currently juggling over 100 such cases as he

shakes the dust off years of evidence, shining a slight ray of hope against a dark system of injustice.

It keeps him busy. Right now, five of his cases are being funneled through the California Innocence Project for review.

Most recently, the case of Zachery Pettus, in prison since 1985, finally made it to the table for consideration.

Then a young man of 18, Pettus, the son of a prominent family in Cincinnati, was convicted of stabbing a strip mall owner to death 25 years go. The crime scene lab work and samples were forgotten and tossed to the back of the Huntington Beach police department.

“The lab stuff was never an issue,” Ford said.  “No one ever tested it or did anything with it,” he said, noting that that was just one of several big holes in the case from the start.

They arrested Pettus, searched his bedroom and his sister's house, took ample pictures and couldn't find anything. Police went back with yet another search warrant, took pictures, and still nothing in sight to link him to the crime. Then, on a tip that something would be found in his bedroom, police went back a third time, discovering the victim's jewelry in full view on top of his dresser where they had already searched twice.

There was plenty of blood evidence, but back then DNA capability wasn't an option. However, they could have tested for blood typing, but they didn't.

“If that were done originally, it would have exonerated Mr. Pettus too. It would have been very coincidental if he had the same blood type as the lady,” Ford said.  “I believe the [newly uncovered] physical evidence will exonerate Mr. Pettus. It will also probably tell us who committed the crime.”

Recently, he pushed the case to the California Innocence Project.

Ironically, Pettus came out to Huntington Beach to live with his sister six months before the incident, but didn't like California and had intended to return to Cincinnati, Ford said.

Jeff Chinn, associate director of the California Innocence Project, said that since the San Diego Innocence Project started, they've cleared nine people, one exonerated through DNA testing, including two who are still in prison pending appeal.

Being that half of the prison system is African American, he said that most of the project's cases involve Black males; however there is a growing Hispanic population.

Chinn said that he has worked with Mr. Ford closely, communicating about local concerns and cases.

“We're always trying to see if there's assignments he can help us on,” Chinn said. “He's a real activist to help reform the criminal justice system, in particular things going on in Orange County.”

He said that recently the organization received a federal grant that will also help further the work on the DNA evidence related to the Pettus case. Staff attorneys are reviewing it, and figuring the best course of action.

“What we'll do is see if the evidence that still exists can be tested and provide some evidence that points toward Mr. Pettus' innocence,” he said.

Right now, the Innocence Project is also trying to push through criminal justice reform that was twice vetoed by the Governor, legislative bills addressing reforms in eyewitness identification procedures, also known as “snitch” testimony.  Also, it would require recording interrogations.

Similar legislation that has passed around the country helps law enforcement, he said, and  police actually appreciate the reforms because it takes away a lot of  police misconduct accusations, and ensures greater accuracy of conviction in the process.

“Those are all reforms that would drastically reduce the possibility of wrongful convictions and also increase the accuracy of getting a good conviction as well,” he said.