DNA Frees Misidentified Man
Another jury got it wrong. Another innocent man languished in prison. And another DNA test set him free.
You've heard the story before. (If you haven't, check out TalkLeft's innocence cases link.) This man's name is Larry Fuller. He served honorably in Vietnam before he served two decades for a rape he didn't commit.
The woman looked at two photo lineups, both of which included Fuller. She picked him in the second one, even though Fuller was bearded in the picture and she said her attacker had no facial hair.
The police contributed to Fuller's misidentification by including his photo in two photo arrays. The unduly suggestive tactic (I know I've seen that face before) all but assured that the victim would pick Fuller. (TalkLeft explores identification procedures in more detail here.)
Fuller has consistently asked for the DNA evidence to be retested, but the Dallas County prosecutors didn't agree to retesting until this year. Remarkably, Fuller is the tenth Dallas County prisoner to be exonerated by DNA testing in the last five years.
The Dallas County prosecutors deserve credit for finally allowing retesting in some cases, and for apologizing to Fuller. But questions need to be asked about the frequency with which the police have arrested, and Dallas County has prosecuted, the wrong person.
Officials from the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal clinic that seeks to uncover wrongful convictions, said the number of overturned cases is "unprecedented and troubling." They plan to ask the district attorney's office to investigate whether there is a pattern to the cases.
"Quite frankly, 10 exonerations in Dallas County is more than some other states have had," said Vanessa Potkin, an Innocence Project lawyer. "Nowhere else in the country have we had so many wrongful convictions exposed in such a short period of time."
| < Alternative TV Tonight | Two Crooked Border Agents Sentenced > |
