Word: crimed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...raising as a single father. His co-defendant, Ron Williamson, landed on death row and came within days of being executed. Years later, Williamson's conviction was reversed on a technicality. Before retrying him, prosecutors decided to do a DNA test of semen and hair found at the crime scene and compare them with Williamson's. Fritz's lawyers asked them to test Fritz too. Result? The DNA excluded both men and implicated someone else who had never been charged with the crime. Last April, after 12 years behind bars, Fritz and Williamson were freed...
Such stories have become shockingly familiar: a convicted criminal, wasting away in jail with little hope of ever proving his innocence, is set free when a DNA test reveals he couldn't have committed the crime. Vincent Jenkins, who had served 17 years in prison for the rape of a Buffalo, N.Y., woman, was released just last week after DNA evidence showed he was not the culprit. He became the 65th inmate to have a conviction overturned thanks to DNA evidence, including eight released from death row. These numbers are testimony to the fallibility of our criminal-justice system...
...postage stamp. And does this evidence still exist? The project has to reject about 70% of the cases that come to it because evidence was lost or destroyed or is otherwise unavailable. Finally, is there a viable theory of innocence? If prosecutors had fingerprints placing the defendant at the crime scene, for example, is there an innocent explanation...
...damages. Only half a dozen states currently have such statutes, and some have low caps--like California's $10,000 maximum. If Dennis Fritz had slipped and fallen in a government building, he could have sued for millions. After being incarcerated for 12 years for a crime he didn't commit, he can't sue for anything...
WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT BILL He is tough on crime...