Innocent 'Rapist' Exonerated After 27 Years, Too Late to Pursue New Suspects ID'd By DNA
For the second time in a week, Texas prosecutors are calling for the release of a convicted rapist exonerated by DNA evidence after serving a lengthy prison term.
After serving 27 years, Michael Anthony Green has put in more time than any other exonerated inmate convicted of rape, reports the Houston Chronicle. He was reportedly convicted based on faulty police work and a bad eyewitness identification.
The same DNA testing that determined Green to be innocent also identified new suspects in the crime. However, they cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired.
Meanwhile, another inmate, Allen Wayne Porter, 39, was freed last week after serving 19 years for a sex crime prosecutors now say he did not commit. DNA testing, again, is what proved his innocence, according to the newspaper.
Green has not yet been released.
Both he and Porter also have yet to have their convictions reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the final word on their guilt or innocence.
Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos pointed to a growing backlog of rape kits that need to be tested, lest other sex criminals escape justice due to statute of limitations issues. She wants to see a regional crime lab created to do the testing.
“If this case isn’t the poster case for the regional crime lab, I don’t know what is,” she says of Green’s faulty conviction.
