DNA FREES MAN FROM PRISON AFTER 23 YEARS: Ernest Sonnier was convicted of rape based largely on victim's testimony.
(August 10, 2009)
*A 46-year-old man walked out of a Houston prison Friday afternoon after
spending 23 years behind bars for a sex crime that the evidence suggests
he did not commit.
Ernest Sonnier was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison largely on the strength of the victim’s testimony, even though the forensic evidence gathered from her body and clothes showed that someone with a blood type different from the defendant’s had raped her, lawyers from the Innocence Project in New York told the New York Times.
“It’s just sloppy science, at best,” said Alba Morales, who represents Sonnier.
Over the last 18 months, genetic testing of evidence found on the victim’s clothing and at the scene of the attack had yielded no trace of Sonnier, the Harris County district attorney’s office said. Instead, it has implicated two other men. Both are felons and known associates. One is awaiting trial for a different rape.
In light of the new evidence, Judge Michael McSpadden of Harris County District Court on Friday ordered Sonnier to be released pending further investigation, a first step toward exoneration, which under Texas law can be granted only by the state’s highest criminal court
Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the state was not ready to concede Sonnier’s innocence, though prosecutors acknowledge that the new DNA tests cast strong doubt on the conviction.
“There is a lot more legwork that needs to be done before we draw any conclusions,” Ms. Hawkins said.
Sonnier’s case is the latest in a string of faulty convictions linked to the Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory, the center of a long-running scandal over sloppy procedures.
The crime for which Sonnier was convicted occurred on Christmas Eve in 1985. Two men abducted a woman at a gas station in Alief, Tex., and then repeatedly raped her during a seven-hour drive to San Antonio. She escaped at 4 a.m. Six months later, she picked Sonnier’s picture out of a photo array. Later, in a police lineup and at trial, she identified him as one of the attackers.
Sonnier and his family have steadfastly maintained his innocence. As he came out of jail, hugged his relatives and tried to come to terms with freedom, he said he was sure more cases like his would come to light. “There are plenty more left in there who are innocent,” he said.
Ernest Sonnier was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison largely on the strength of the victim’s testimony, even though the forensic evidence gathered from her body and clothes showed that someone with a blood type different from the defendant’s had raped her, lawyers from the Innocence Project in New York told the New York Times.
“It’s just sloppy science, at best,” said Alba Morales, who represents Sonnier.
Over the last 18 months, genetic testing of evidence found on the victim’s clothing and at the scene of the attack had yielded no trace of Sonnier, the Harris County district attorney’s office said. Instead, it has implicated two other men. Both are felons and known associates. One is awaiting trial for a different rape.
In light of the new evidence, Judge Michael McSpadden of Harris County District Court on Friday ordered Sonnier to be released pending further investigation, a first step toward exoneration, which under Texas law can be granted only by the state’s highest criminal court
Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the state was not ready to concede Sonnier’s innocence, though prosecutors acknowledge that the new DNA tests cast strong doubt on the conviction.
“There is a lot more legwork that needs to be done before we draw any conclusions,” Ms. Hawkins said.
Sonnier’s case is the latest in a string of faulty convictions linked to the Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory, the center of a long-running scandal over sloppy procedures.
The crime for which Sonnier was convicted occurred on Christmas Eve in 1985. Two men abducted a woman at a gas station in Alief, Tex., and then repeatedly raped her during a seven-hour drive to San Antonio. She escaped at 4 a.m. Six months later, she picked Sonnier’s picture out of a photo array. Later, in a police lineup and at trial, she identified him as one of the attackers.
Sonnier and his family have steadfastly maintained his innocence. As he came out of jail, hugged his relatives and tried to come to terms with freedom, he said he was sure more cases like his would come to light. “There are plenty more left in there who are innocent,” he said.
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