Very sad. His life and the lives of his children were put through this...all the while the real rapist is on the loose.
The "R" under some mug shots seems obviously prejudicial to me.
Knowing your chances of parole get easier if you 'accept' responsibility and still not doing it- That in my book takes courage and is probably a measure of his innocence (of course in absence of the DNA test it would not mean much, but still...)
How does a person reclaim their life after this? There's no amount of money to compensate someone like this....
There seem to be a lot of cases with innocent people released from prison lately... It's very sad that so many years were stolen from them...
But, I do wonder, are these all cases of people proven innocent, or just of people not guilty thanks to a technicality?
For example, there was a rape/murder in my city years ago for which two men were arrested and confessed. But then DNA tests released them. The one guy was guilty - his confession corroborated with the other guy's story. But I guess he didn't "leave evidence," and whoever else the young woman - a college student - "saw" that night before the rape never stepped forward (probably a married man).
Your criminal justice system at work. This guy does 18 years, O.J. plays golf.
A problem with our system is the adversarial nature of prosecutor versus the defense as opposed to seeking the truth, no matter what it might be. In this case, as in many others, the prosecutor had more interest in protecting his side than in the truth or the life of the person wrongly convicted. Our system pits lawyerly skills against each other and truth is often the loser.
Cases like this almost make you think maybe the people who falsely identified him the first time ought to do some time.
I'm sure (or at least hope) it was a mistake on their part, but when they IDd him, I assume they were asked if they were SURE. Not almost, sorta-kinda sure.
bump
It would be nice if the prosecutor in this case did 18 years behind bars. That would certainly put other out-of-control prosecutors on notice.
I think that EVERYBODY on death row that can get a belated DNA test should be given one, and the innocent set free with a $2000 gift. Oh, and the proven guilty should be dragged into the street and hung. But that's just me.
Why don't we ever hear of all the cases where DNA proved the guilt of the convict? Must outnumber innocent convicts by 500 - 1.
Well .. I can see the use of the "R" if the person was previously convicted of rape - but if there is no conviction - then the "R" is possibly an abuse.
Very sad. There was a case similar to this in Oklahoma. A young father was jailed based on phony DNA evidence concoted by a crooked crime lab woman, who is still out on the street instead on the gallows pole, where she belongs.
If the courts weren't so quick to accept the word of the woman rather than match up hard evidence with the accusation, fewer wrong convictions would ensue.
Usually, in cases of this type, an overzealous prosecutor will be found.