DNA clears man who was in prison 25 years

[deadparrot]

Source: Associated Press

CHICAGO -- A man who spent 25 years behind bars for a 1981 rape was cleared of all charges Monday after DNA evidence proved what he had always said: He didn't commit the crime.

When Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane G. Cannon vacated 48-year-old Jerry Miller's conviction, a courtroom of his family and friends whistled and cheered. Miller smiled.

...

Jerry Miller (center) had spent 25 years in prison for rape, but thanks to the persistence of the Innocence Project, a New York-based group that uses DNA to clear people wrongly convicted of crimes, he was formally exonerated of rape, robbery, aggravated battery and aggravated kidnapping and was made a free man at a court hearing Monday.

The exoneration is the nation's 200th based on DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project in New York, a nonprofit group that works to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates through the use of DNA evidence. It is the 27th in Illinois.

Read more: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/354566,3_1_EL24_A4DNA_S1.article

[skipos]

1. And this is why I can't support the death penalty. We clearly make mistakes

ALL
THE
TIME.

[BOSSHOG]

2. As patriotic, law abiding conservatives would say

SHIT HAPPENS. So he was imprisoned falsely for 25 years. Big Deal. Yo get over it. All these namby pamby liberals and their innocence garbage. Surely he was guilty of something else.

[rox63]

3. Forgot the sarcasm tag?

I think most people will realize anyway that you're being sarcastic without it. :)

[BOSSHOG]

5. I like to walk on the wildside

I'll survive or perish in my attempts at sarcasm without the emoticon and I usually get my ass kicked severely on occasion because of it.

[melody]

4. I said to myself before I clicked the link "is he black or a poor white guy?"

I knew it would be one or the other.

This is absolutely insane. Think of all the innocent people who've been executed. You can be sure the state
destroys any extant potential DNA evidence after executions.

[shanti]

7. exactly!

i say that to myself also when i read stories like this. it's almost always a minority.

[Missy M]

6. Same thing happened in Buffalo a few weeks ago...

Anthony Capozzi was in prison 22 years for rapes he didn't commit. He always maintained his innocence and every time he went before the parole board he wouldn't show remorse for the rapes, because he always said he was innocent, so they wouldn't parole him. DNA just proved he didn't commit the rapes. He was identified by the rape victims as the perp. The DNA from the victims was actually from a man who committed multiple rapes and three murders over that time period. The innocent man and the man who committed the rapes had a resemblance. There is much more to the story but the innocent man is finally free.

[xchrom]

8. heart breaking -- and there are far, far too many of these incidents.

one might think that justice was in need of reform.