18 years in jail - guilty until proven innocent
 

DNA Test Frees Man After Nearly 18 Years


Monday August 1, 2005 5:31 PM

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man who spent nearly 18 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit was released from prison Monday after new tests of DNA evidence cleared him.

Prosecutors joined defense attorneys on Monday in asking a judge to free Thomas Doswell, 44, after DNA in the case was retested by the nonprofit Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law in New York.

... http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...182106,00.html

:mad:

....................

He must been assraped a hunderd times in those 18 years. Sex offenders always get the brown sugar love.

:Oh crap yeahhttp://www.post-gazette.com/images3/...llPJ03_450.jpg thats the guy..

so jah seh

It just hears about it, every time he was up for parole the board didn't let him out because he refused to admit he did the crime. I applaud him for not caving and telling the board he was sorry, etc. just to get his release.

I hope he wins a huge lawsuit after all of this.

I was just reading this story as well... I knew it was a black man even before I saw the photo... typical all american justice.

.. I hope he gets paid bigtime

Scary stuff. 18 years is a long time to rot away in a prison. The system owes him, big time. The accuser/victim owes him too. She must have had to testify that beyond a shadow of a doubt it was him. She should pay too.

Fucked up shit. This just proves yet again that the police can kick down your door, lock you up and throw away the key even if you did NOTHING wrong at all. I hope he gets his life back together.

I do not know what I would do if I was int that situation. I would want revenge, but wouldn't want to get locked up again. hmmmm

crazy stuff I hope while in there he got an education

can you imagine coming out of prison after 18 years

how much the world has changed

Good thing the victim didn't die, otherwise he would have been executed... can't repair that.,

i would have killed myself if i got in jail if im innocent....or i might get crazy inside after 18 years..but at least he's now free for revenge :)

good to hear he got out, finally

He will get out with a few millions in his pockets i hope , but nothing can make up for 18 years in jail.

Glad to see the poor guy got out. The problem is now he has to adjust to the real world and the crime he was accused of will still follow him around.

As far as a big law suite I doubt that will happen. He will be lucky to get compensated for this blunder.

From http://www.usatoday.com/money/workpl...ted-jobs_x.htm

seig heil to the amerikan police state

That is disturbing. I hope he gets justice in the form of some sort of payback for his time served and a healthy lawsuit and prison time for the person that accused him.


:/

thats so sad

So will the state give him a big payday, or is it basicly like he's been on welfare for 18 years.. nice give him a few mill atleast geez.

read the book by bill curtis called "death penalty" and you will see just how badly our system is screwed up.

i am all for the death penalty, if the crime calls for it and if you have the right person who is guilty of said crime. to see these over zealous prosecutors, cops and judges point the blame due to shotty work.....maybe those people should deal with the same punishment as an actual innocent person who was put in jail did.

Well he lost 18 years of his life ... so 18*60k$ + interest over the time ;) at LEAST

even if you werent a criminal being in jail for 18 yrs has to change you

that was crap! he should get paid for the 18 years in jail when all the time he's innocent....

I hope there is a hudge law suite for this one!

Dude, look at that guy. How many other crimes did he get away with?

theres no amount of money that can bring back 18 yrs of life,
damn the judicial system<bill cosby voice>

??? :helpme

Yeah Hottoddy is right, look at him, I mean he HAD to have done something wrong. He certainly looks like your run of the mill criminal type. You can tell by how thugged out his woman is. He has all the signs on a criminal right, like black skin and............ well what exactly are you trying to say Hottoddy?

That would really piss me off!!!!!

In Colombia long time ago an old man was release from jail after being there for 35 years. He was innocent of all charges, the colombian military tortured him for years, all this happens because the officer who do the charges wrote his last name wrong. He write ARANJO instead of ARANGO, they convicted the wrong person.

I remember I watch this on TV a long time ago.

It may take a while but he'll get paid somehow. Hell someone will pay him to write the book if not the movie.

I think you can recoup about $18k per year. fucking joke money

That's fucked up, stupid shit like that happens all the time. Up here in Canada in 1970, the police couldn't find a child murderer so they railroaded some poor hippy named David Milgaard. He spent 23 years in prison until his mother fought to have him freed based on new DNA evidence. He got $10 million (Canadian), but that's hardly worth the hell he went through. Everyone thought he killed a kid, he got it really bad in jail.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/milgaard/

Ok I was mistaken, she wasn't a kid, she was 20, and she was raped and then murdered.

He was only 17 when they threw him in jail. What a waste of a life. :(

Fuck, those 18 years were all wasted behind those prison cells.

I feel bad for him and his family. I Bet the girl that put him in jail feels like shit.

it's really frustrating how justice can take so long.. but maybe it's never too late (i hope) to return to where he last lived.

idiot...

Didn't the same thing happen to Tom Selleck?

For what? He was convicted by a jury of his peers. They can't prove malice.

maybe it's time dna testing becomes a requirement because human error will kick in every chance it gets.

i briefly knew a woman who shot her lover to death. it's true the woman begged to be shot, but still - dead. the woman who shot her did a whopping 18 months. this guy didn't do anything, and did 18 years. and all this time, they could have done a test to find out if he was actually guilty...

sue the almighty fuk out of the government for a start

I would sue the gov so bad, 18 years lost :(

Sadly, he won't get a lot of money out of this.

The court doesn't really reward people for the court's own mistakes.

I think the wrongly convicted should get $250,000 per year plus extra restitution for every crime committed against them while in prison.

Then you will have the ACLU saying it is unconstitutional to force someone to give up their DNA.

That is why states are enacting these laws, but it is being fought all the way.

I am sure I have read on GFY, people here that think it is wrong to force someone to give up their DNA unless the person has been convicted, and even then, someone will bitch about it.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh Let me guess . . . . 18?

Where did you come up with this number? People would be turning themselves in for crimes they did not commit, right and left.

Then they turn themself in, can't really sue anyone then.

$250K / year would be around $5 million (4½ but who is counting the pennies anyway?)
He would need to have a extremely stupid lawyer not to get that

Not the first time that's happened

50....



_Vagina