Yet another American man is freed after spending almost two dozen years in prison and it still shocks me. I don't think I will ever get used to hearing about these cases.
MILWAUKEE — A decades-old homicide charge was dismissed Monday against a Wisconsin man who spent nearly two dozen years in prison before new forensic tests raised questions about the evidence used to convict him.Technorati Tags: wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, innocence, crime, law, prison, exonerated, dna testing, inmate
Robert Lee Stinson, 44, shook hands with his attorneys, then hugged several relatives who wiped tears from their eyes after the charge was formally dismissed. He was freed from prison earlier this year after a judge vacated his sentence of life in prison.
"I feel wonderful right now," Stinson told The Associated Press. "I can't express it in words. It hasn't really sunk in yet."
Stinson, of Milwaukee, was convicted in the 1984 slaying of a 63-year-old Milwaukee woman, whose near-naked beaten and bloody body was found in an alley near her home with eight bite marks on her torso. His 1985 conviction was based in part on testimony from experts who said the bite marks matched the teeth of Stinson, then 21.
But newer tests, as well as DNA analysis of saliva found on the victim's sweater, suggested no match to Stinson, who has always maintained his innocence.
Read more: The Associated Press: Freed Wis. inmate gets homicide charge dismissed
The Wisconsin Innocence Project : http://www.law.wisc.edu/fjr/clinicals/ip/index.html
This is wonderful but let's not forget this man lost 24 years of his life!!! Freedom is wonderful and I pray that he is given the finances he will need to now live a truly free life.
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