Based on information posted at the Innocence Project Web site, a woman made a false rape claim that sent an innocent man to prison for 30 years.
From the Innocence Project Web site:
"Henry James was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to life without parole on May 7, 1982. James, who testified on his own behalf at trial and presented three alibi witness to back up his testimony, has always maintained his innocence of the rape of a woman who he had met on several occasions and who lived adjacent to him. Although the defendant was with the victim’s husband the day before the attack and had several encounters with the victim on that day, she told police immediately after the crime that she didn’t know her attacker. However, two days later she identified James from a book of suspects and later picked him out of a lineup.
"James requested the help of the Innocence Project, which sought to do DNA testing of the rape kit. Although officials at the Jefferson Parish Crime Laboratory were cooperative, the initial searches for the evidence proved fruitless. On May 3, 2010, Milton Dureau, who worked for the lab, was looking for evidence in a different case when he stumbled upon a slide from James’ case. Fortunately, he remembered the case number from his earlier search. The evidence was sent to Orchid Cellmark, which did STR DNA testing on the slide. The testing, which was completed on September 26, 2011, excluded James as the perpetrator in the rape.
"With the consent of Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick, Jr., a Jefferson Parish judge vacated the conviction and dismiss the charges late on October 20, 2011. James is expected walk out of Angola prison on Friday morning, October 21.
"The Innocence Project is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Archivist - ”Based on information posted at the Innocence Project Web site, a woman made a false rape claim that sent an innocent man to prison for 30 years.”
Am I correct in my assumption that, based on your use of the term ”false rape claim” you also suspect (as do I) that this is not simply a case of a misidentification, but rather a deliberate selection of a man who the women must have known was not the one who engaged in sexual activity (consensual, or otherwise) with her?
Where many of those freed by the work of the Innocence Project have been victims of misidentifications, this particular case seems to have some more nefarious intent on the part of this woman (or others). How else would her initial claim of not knowing her attacker morphing into her picking her neighbor (whom she was apparently familiar with) out of a photo line-up (and subsequent physical line-up) be explained?
The details provided are sparse, but I can imagine three different scenarios aside from a simple misidentification that seem to explain the inconsistencies of her identification of Henry James:
She may have been yet another women who was in quick need of an alibi fearing that she had been/would be caught-out in an illicit sexual encounter with the man who’s semen was actually found on her body.
Her husband may have had some grievance with James, took advantage of his wife’s misfortune in having been raped, and pressured her into identifying James as her attacker.
Or, perhaps the police had it in for James, and manipulated her into first selecting his photo (that this sort of manipulation is often done has been well documented), and then following up on that first misidentification by choosing him from a line-up (I don’t know about how things were done in the early 80’s, but for some time, defense attorney’s have been present at police line-ups to watch for efforts to manipulate a victims identification).
I could be wrong, and it may just have been one of those misidentification that resulted in an innocent man being convicted, but although the details presented are sparse, this one definitely has an odd “smell” to it.
The campus Gender-Raunch community tell us we must "Always believe the women when she says she has been raped", and i would like to ask "Even when they are lying??"
This story about Mr. James seems to be an excerpt from the Book "False Justice" by Jim and Nancy Petro (He was a former Attorney General in Ohio.) He works for the Governor now, but between being AG and his current position, he helped out with the Ohio Innocence Project then wrote the book. It is good reading. Most people can finish it in the "reading room" before they need to renew it. About 200 pages. A lot of what you read on this site is quoted in/from this book. Original sources of information are included in the book too.
Hey feminists,Is this your definition of "collateral damage"?
Post a Comment