Source: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

Below you will find a list from the DPIC, which gives you a better idea of where the 12% comes from. The latest statistics show that since 1973, 122 people in 25 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. In the case of death row inmate exonerations, the inclusion of DNA evidence did not come in to play until 1993.

In order to be included on the list, defendants must have been convicted and sentenced to death, and subsequently either:
a) their conviction was overturned and they were acquitted at a re-trial, or all charges were dismissed; or
b) they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center - http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110

With the ongoing popularity of the use of DNA evidence in criminal cases, it would seem that this number should be higher. However, as stated in the above-mentioned report, “most murders do not involve the exchange of bodily materials containing DNA evidence.  A single shooting where no blood of the victim appears on the perpetrator and the defendant drives away in his own car is not likely to be a DNA case.”

Another reason would be the fact that compared to a number of other sciences, DNA is fairly new. It is very likely that as we continue to see an expansion of testing capability through government funding, increasing numbers of private labs and ultimately a reduction in the current backlog, many more death row cases will be addressed.

Most recently, in El Paso, a judge delayed what would have been the state's last execution of the year, ordering DNA testing on evidence in a 14-year-old case.

Tony Ford, 32, had his lethal injection put off at least until March 14 by state District Judge William Moody to allow DNA testing on clothing. Ford's lawyers argue that the testing will support their contention that he may not have killed 17-year-old Armando Murillo.

The state will finish 2005 with 19 executions, the lowest total since 2001.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref01.html

As Maryland prepared to execute Wesley Eugene Baker, the debate over the death penalty was once again the subject of furious debate across the nation.

Cardinal William H. Keeler made an unprecedented visit to Baker on Maryland's death row and spoke of the sacredness of human life. The next day, Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner granted clemency to a convicted killer after rejecting similar pleas in 11 previous cases. And a North Carolina inmate died by lethal injection for killing his estranged wife and father-in-law. Kenneth Lee Boyd was the 1,000th prisoner to be executed since the United States resumed capital punishment in 1977 after a decade-long hiatus.
Death penalty opponents point to recent events as evidence that capital punishment's days are numbered.

"We think the death penalty is going to wither away on the vine," said David Elliot, communications director of the Washington-based National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It's not really a question of whether it will be abolished, but when."

But supporters of capital punishment say that while its use has declined -- 125 people were sentenced to death last year versus an average of nearly 300 during the 1990s -- it will continue.

Overall, the evidence suggests that Americans may have decided that the death penalty should stand, but be applied far more sparingly than in the past.

As fewer people are sentenced to death, proponents argue, capital cases are getting greater scrutiny from police and prosecutors, which should lead to fewer reversible errors on appeal.

The development of advanced forensic techniques like DNA analysis have led to the release of inmates across the country in recent years, including 14 death row inmates. But those techniques may eventually ensure that convictions are far more reliable -- and thus difficult to challenge.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref02.html

In Georgia, after 24 years in prison - one of the longest incarcerations served by the 164 people who have been exonerated by DNA testing – Robert Clark Jr., 45, was buoyant at the prospect of seeing his siblings, children and the five grandchildren he did not have when he was sentenced in 1982.

What is stunning about [this story] is the fact that the man who the authorities now believe was the real rapist, Floyd Antonio Arnold, was in easy reach of the police at the time.

The DNA test that exonerated Mr. Clark started a chain reaction that revealed not just Mr. Clark's innocence, but a series of law-enforcement bungles. Those missteps allowed Mr. Arnold to commit violent crimes repeatedly and, very nearly, to walk out of prison, where he is serving time for cruelty to children, at the end of January, despite the fact that his DNA matches that found in Mr. Clark's case and two other previously unsolved rapes.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref03.html

As more innocent people are being cleared, states are facing the issue of timely compensation of those wrongly convicted.

According to a recent article, Florida is missing a fair and reliable system to compensate former convicts who have been irrefutably exonerated by DNA evidence.

The case of Wilton Dedge demonstrates the need. Mr. Dedge, who is from Brevard County, spent 22 years in prison on a rape conviction before he was released last year. DNA evidence proved that Mr. Dedge wasn't the assailant.

Yet he received no financial compensation to help him rebuild his life, or reimburse his parents. They depleted their retirement savings paying legal fees to fight for his freedom.

During the last legislative session, lawmakers considered a special bill to help Mr. Dedge. That bill offered only $200,000. Considering the freedom that Mr. Dedge lost, that amount is miserly.

Another special bill under consideration offers Mr. Dedge more money. That's better. But the legislative process is slow, unreliable and subject to political whims. The special-bill route depends on finding a lawmaker willing to take up the matter. Some lawmakers don't want to get involved to avoid appearing soft on crime, even though the convict was exonerated.

It's no surprise that many prisoners claim they are innocent. Since 2001, though, only four have been exonerated in Florida by DNA evidence. Forty DNA cases are under review in Florida at this time so there could be more.

That's why it makes sense for Florida lawmakers to follow the example of other states that have established formulas for compensating such convicts. In some states, these freed convicts are given the equivalent of legal fees and estimated lost wages.

That's a reasonable approach, as long as it's limited to convicts cleared by DNA evidence, which is found in body fluids, such as blood. DNA is irrefutable because science can validate the facts.

Convicts exonerated through other means, such as recanted testimony, could still pursue compensation through special legislative bills. But it shouldn't be automatic.

By limiting the compensation to convicts cleared by DNA and by coming up with a reasonable formula for it, fairness can prevail.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref04.html

Recent cases involving DNA evidence to put criminals behind bars include those in a number of states.

California - Nobody knows who he is or where he is, but prosecutors used DNA samples to file criminal charges yesterday against a man they said robbed a market on Euclid Avenue and threatened patrons nearly three years ago.

"We will find him," District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said at a news conference yesterday. "It's just a matter of time."
Dumanis said the time limit for filing charges in the case would have run out next week, but filing criminal charges in Superior Court based on the DNA samples will keep the case alive indefinitely.

She said this is the first of hundreds of such cases that will be reviewed in which criminals have yet to be caught. They will be identified in court papers by a series of letters and numbers that form the computerized records of their DNA instead of by name, Dumanis said.
The charges against the Euclid Avenue robber were filed on the one-year anniversary of Proposition 69, a 2004 ballot measure that requires felons and people arrested on suspicion of murder or violent sex crimes to provide authorities with a DNA sample.
By 2009 the ballot measure will require all adults arrested on a felony charge in California to provide a DNA sample. Those not convicted can have their DNA removed from a state database.

"Without Proposition 69, this case would have been lost and the suspect would have gotten off with a brutal robbery," Dumanis said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref05.html

New York (AP) - The man suspected of being the so-called Silver Spring rapist has been sentenced in New York to up to 46 years in prison for a June 1973 rape in Manhattan.

58-year-old Fletcher Anderson Worrell was sentenced Monday. He was convicted earlier this month after DNA evidence linked him to the attack on Kathleen Ham.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref06.html

Chicago - Detectives investigating a series of sexual attacks on women in their homes have linked a 21-year-old South Side man to three of the cases and are pursuing DNA evidence in several others.

Police say they arrested Prince J. Richard, 21, on Oct. 25, as he tried to flee a 76-year-old woman's apartment in the 7900 block of South Rhodes Avenue. Police say he attacked the woman and struggled with her as she screamed, but she was not sexually assaulted.

Richard has been in jail since.

Police sent Richard's DNA to the Illinois State Police crime lab to match against rape kits from four other attacks this fall in the same area. A match was returned in two of the cases--attacks on Oct. 7 and 16--and police are awaiting results in two others, said Calumet Area Detective Jeffrey Roberts.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref07.html

California - A young man accused of raping a Capitola woman in April appeared in court Wednesday to begin defending a new allegation — that he also raped a 35-year-old woman in Soquel nearly four years ago.
Joseph Juan Carvalho Beltran, 21, pleaded innocent to the new charges. They were filed this week after detectives got a DNA match on unspecified evidence from the Dec. 12, 2001, rape.

Detectives say the DNA match pointed to Beltran, whose genetic information was in the criminal justice system not from the Capitola rape, but from when he served time in prison for a 2002 burglary, sheriff's Sgt. Robin Mitchell said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref08.html

Pennsylvania - DNA led to the arrest of a man in the 1993 killing of a city woman whose body was crushed underneath rocks at the base of a bridge.

Steven R. Simpson, 37, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, rape, abuse of corpse and other offenses in the slaying of Louise M. Weyandt, 35.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref09.html

South Carolina - A DNA analysis has indicated that a series of Upstate rapes were committed by the same man, investigators say.
The assaults happened from 1995 through 2003 in Greenville and Spartanburg counties. There was a lull in the attacks from 1999 to 2002.

Charity Gencarelli, an investigator with the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office in the major crime unit, is investigating 16 unsolved rapes over the eight-year period.

She said the DNA match in six of the cases likely means the same person is responsible for the other 10 attacks.

Members of more than a half-dozen law enforcement agencies in North Carolina and South Carolina met Tuesday to see if more cases could be linked to the DNA evidence.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref10.html

Pennsylvania - Hanover police say DNA has helped link a man to the alleged rape of a 69-year-old woman seven years ago in the borough.

Police say Shawn Gregory Gonzalez, 34, forced his way into a home in the 200 block of Potomac Avenue on July 21, 1998, while the woman was sleeping.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref11.html

California - A state Department of Justice forensics expert testified in an Auburn courtroom that two hair strands found inside and outside the car belonging to murder defendant Mario Garcia matched the DNA of a woman who has been missing since Oct. 5.

Criminalist Shawn Kacer calculated that only one person out of every 720 quintillion people would have a DNA to match that of the missing woman.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref12.html

New York - A 23-year-old prison inmate linked by DNA evidence to two long unsolved Albany killings and a rape has pleaded guilty to murder charges.

Raymon McGill, formerly of Schenectady, faces 40 years to life behind bars.

He admitted Saturday in Albany County Court to fatally stabbing Martha Montalvo, a 50-year-old state worker, in her home five years ago.

He also admitted to murder in the shooting death of 69-year-old George Young in 2004 during a robbery at Young's home.

McGill previously confessed to raping an 85-year-old woman in her Albany apartment in 2000.

A mandated DNA sample was taken from Mcgill when he entered the state prison system in March to start a five-year sentence for attempted robbery. His sample was checked against open cases in the state DNA data bank.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref13.html

Washington - A single strand of hair could solve a three-year-old bank robbery case and send the suspect to prison for life.
After a Spokane Wells Fargo Bank was robbed in 2003, police found clothing in a nearby alley and sent it to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for analysis. In October, forensic scientists extracted DNA from a hair in a knit cap and matched the genetic material to Keith Birch, who already was serving time for bank robbery at the Airway Heights Correction Center.

If he's convicted of this latest robbery charge, Birch could face life in prison without the possibility of parole under the three-strikes-you're-out sentencing law.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_7_dec_05/vol7_ref14.html

Again, please send us your questions or concerns and our expert will provide honest and candid feedback, expert@dnalabsinternational.com. 

Editor: Karen Daurie
Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com

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