Chronology of a frame-up

8/19/89 After a car chase, Roderick "Cooley" Shannon, 17, is beaten and shot to death in the parking lot of a grocery store located on the corner of Leland and Rutland Streets in Visitacion Valley.

10/3/90 Antoine Goff and John J. Tennison stand trial in San Francisco Superior Court for the killing. Both claim innocence. The prosecution's case is built on the constantly mutating eyewitness testimony of two young girls, Masina Fauolo, 14, and Pauline Maluina, 12.

10/31/90 The jury convicts both men.

11/7/90 Lovinsky Ricard is picked up on a warrant unrelated to the shooting. Unprompted, he admits to slaying Shannon. Police release Ricard and sit on his confession for six months.

6/20/91 A judge sentences Goff to 27 years to life in state prison; Tennison gets 25 years to life. In the years that follow, deputy public defender Jeff Adachi, Diana Samuelson, and several other lawyers doggedly continue to fight on behalf of the two men.

7/2/92 Defense lawyers learn of Chante Smith. Smith witnessed the killing, fingered Ricard as the killer, and exonerated Tennison and Goff. She had told her story to police before trial, but notes from her interview were never disclosed to the defense.

8/18/93 Smith is given a polygraph test. Her statements about the killing are found to be truthful.

1/17/01 The Bay Guardian publishes "The Hardest Time," an exposé of the case strongly suggesting that Tennison and Goff are innocent. The story points out major inconsistencies in the statements of Faoulo and Maluina and numerous other flaws in the prosecution case. In the wake of the story, a team of lawyers at the San Francisco firm Keker and Van Nest take up Tennison's appeals pro bono. Led by Elliot Peters and Ethan Balogh, the team pours thousands of hours into reinvestigating the case, files a mountain of briefs, and interviews Hendrix and Sanders under oath.

1/24/01 Patrick Barnett, a cousin of Roderick Shannon, tells the Bay Guardian he believes Tennison and Goff are innocent.

3/5/03 At the height of the Fajitagate circus, the Bay Guardian reports on new proof of police and prosecutorial misconduct unearthed by Balogh, Peters, and company. The San Francisco Chronicle follows two weeks later with front-page coverage of the fresh allegations.

6/25/03 An investigator for the Keker team tracks down key witness Maluina, who recants her courtroom testimony and accuses the prosecution team of coaching her to lie. The story goes national. The Bay Guardian reveals that Luther Brock, whose murder conviction was voided in 1985, may have been framed by Sanders and Hendrix.

8/26/03 After 10 months, federal Judge Claudia Wilken rules on Tennison's habeas appeal. In a 103-page ruling, she overturns his sentence.

8/29/03 Tennison's mother, Dolly Tennison, is meeting with reporter A.C. Thompson when she gets the phone call: after 13 years, her son is walking out of Mule Creek State Prison. Her eyes are moist as she jogs to her car and heads north to the penitentiary. Goff remains imprisoned but is expected to be freed shortly.

A.C.Thompson