CT Man Freed After 21 Years, DNA Established His Innocence

By Jeralyn, Section Innocence Cases
Posted on Wed Aug 05, 2009 at 07:12:57 PM EST
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Egregious cases of wrongful convictions continue to come to light. Kenny Ireland of Connecticut was imprisoned at age 20 for a rape and murder DNA evidence now shows he did not commit. He was released from prison today.

East Haven State Rep. Mike Lawlor issued this statement:

“This is yet another Connecticut example of an innocent person having spent two decades in prison for a very serious crime while an actual rapist and murderer has been roaming free since 1986. This is not acceptable.

“The legislature, working with the Advisory Commission on Wrongful Convictions, must determine whether any state laws need to change and whether the law enforcement community is using best practices in the investigation of cases in order to avoid wrongful arrests and convictions.

Congrats to the CT Innocence Project which represented him. Ireland will be allowed to apply for compensation under CT law. It will never be enough to make up for two decades of his life.

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CT Man Freed After 21 Years, DNA Established His Innocence | 5 comments (5 topical)

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I can't imagine (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by jen on Wed Aug 05, 2009 at 08:16:27 PM EST

how one wouldn't be extremely bitter having been robbed of 2 decades of their life. But somehow, you read case after case of people being so forgiving. I wonder if that's true in most cases of wrongful convictions? I hope the days of taking the word of one eye witness as 100% truth will end. I do realize we don't know if that was the case in this case.

How many more (none / 0) (#2)
by gyrfalcon on Wed Aug 05, 2009 at 11:54:23 PM EST

of these do we have to have before people wake up to the gross injustice, not to mention the real perps still being out and able to continue doing what they do?

Rape and murder, eh? (none / 0) (#3)
by Romberry on Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 02:38:39 AM EST

See, the problem here is that obvious scumbag(1) Kenny Ireland wasn't sentenced to death and taken out and hanged, shot and drawn and quartered(2) in the public square on the same day.(3)

Yeah, he may not have been guilty of this crime, but all right-thinking Americans know that people who get arrested are guilty of something.
Combination capital punishment is by far the best (as that way you are sure that the scum is well and truly dead and you also get to use the multiple executions/torture to enhance the well-established deterrent effect of capital punishment.)
Super-speedy executions are vitally important on a number of fronts. First, if you kill 'em quick, there's no time for people to question whether you got the right guy. Second, you prevent waste of a lot of time and money (not to mention sowing doubts about our justice system) by spending years finding out that the wrong person was found guilty. And third, it's cheap family entertainment!

</wingnut mode>

hard cases make bad law (none / 0) (#4)
by diogenes on Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 05:58:32 AM EST

If the threshold for rape convictions is positive DNA evidence, then a lot of actual rapists will never be convicted because their shrewd attorneys will cite the "perils of eyewitness evidence" and Kenny Ireland as an example. A lot of DA's then won't take cases to trial based on victim statements only, especially if the victim files a late report and DNA is unobtainable.

: Even worse (none / 0) (#5)
by NMvoiceofreason on Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 06:17:51 AM EST

Rape at will by using a condom.