DNA frees some, convicts others

DNA and other forms of evidence that depend on sophisticated technology are factoring into an increasing number of cases.

The Baltimore Sun reported today that DNA evidence from a rape in Baltimore County in 1980 matches that of a Baltimore man who is awaiting trial for a 1981 rape and armed robbery in the county.

Here are cases from around the country from the past month, as reported by the Associated Press:

Last week, a judge in Louisville, Ky., ruled that evidence definitively pointed to a man other than the one who’d been incarcerated for about nine years for manslaughter and robbery.

Edwin A. Chandler, 37, who called his time in prison “a walking nightmare,” had his conviction overturned. He was serving 10- and 20-year sentences.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys had jointly filed a motion for his release after high-tech re-examination of a fingerprint and new statements by witnesses cleared him.  Electronic fingerprint matching wasn’t available in 1995 when Chandler was convicted, and no one ran the fingerprint through the electronic system until this month.

DNA-based cases

In Knoxville, Tenn., Lemaricus Davidson is on trial, accused of being the ringleader in the torture and killing of a young couple. He pleaded not guilty to all 46 counts against him. His attorney predicted that while prosecutors will submit DNA evidence that shows Davidson had intercourse with the woman, it won’t prove much else.

In Dallas, DNA testing confirmed the guilt of a man who had claimed that he was wrongly convicted of a sexual assault that occurred in 1997. His motion for a DNA test was granted, but his attorney says Hill has “earned himself a return bus ride to prison.”

Dallas County leads the nation in DNA exonerations of the wrongly convicted, with 21 guilty verdicts set aside since 2001. Most of the county’s DNA testing has confirmed the original guilty verdicts, though.

One of the exonerated Texans, who had spent more time in prison than anyone eventually cleared by DNA evidence, has received a pardon from Gov. Rick Perry. James Woodard became the 39th Texan to be set free thanks to DNA, the most of any state, according to the Innocence Project.

Under state law, $80,000 for each year of incarceration, plus a lifetime annuity, are to be paid to the wrongly accused.  Woodard expects to get about $4.3 million for his nearly 30 years in prison.

Some Texans haven’t lived long enough to see their exoneration or compensation. Timothy Cole died nearly 10 years before DNA evidence cleared him. His mother has filed a lawsuit in Lubbock seeking not damages, but depositions from the police officers who investigated the rape.

Cole died in prison in 1999 at 38 of complications from asthma. He maintained his innocence until he died. A 2008 DNA test proved him right, 13 years after another man began confessing to the crime in letters to prosecutors and judges that were ignored.

“Tim will never know the answers,” said Cole’s mother, Ruby Session. “I want to know all the things he wanted to know.”

Money matters

How to receive compensation remains an issue. In Nashville, Tenn., a man who was wrongly imprisoned for 22 years pleaded with lawmakers to let him have his money as a lump payment to use for expenses including care of his uninsured diabetic wife. After receiving $250,000 in 2002, he’ been receiving $3,400 a month.

In Colorado, DNA technology will be used in reviewing as many as 5,000 rape, murder and manslaughter cases, state officials announced. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that defendants convicted of crimes have no constitutional right to DNA evidence that could prove their innocence. Despite that, the state attorney general, the Denver district attorney and the director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said prosecutors have an ethical duty to seek the truth and assure justice in every case. A $1.2 million federal grant will fund the project.

A group in Nevada wants the state to join others, including Maryland, in taking DNA from anyone arrested for certain crimes. Critics have called the proposal an invasion of privacy with potential for manipulation, while supporters point to violent crimes committed by people after they’d been arrested and released.

Expense was cited as a reason for defeat of similar legislation last year. Nevada felons are charged $150 for tests, but officials say only about 10 percent pay. Opponents object to making people pay without having been convicted.