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Criminal Justice

Texas Man Innocent in Rape Case; 16th Wrongful Conviction in Dallas County

Posted Apr 17, 2008, 04:42 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

A Texas judge temporarily released an inmate yesterday who had been imprisoned for more than two decades in a burglary and rape case, after DNA evidence proved his innocence.

Thomas McGowan Jr.'s case must now be finally resolved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, although Judge Susan Hawk recommended that he be released permanently and apologized to him, reports the Dallas Morning News.

"Mr. McGowan is the 16th Dallas County inmate to be cleared through DNA testing since 2001, the most of any county in the nation," the newspaper recounts. "Like almost all of the other wrongful convictions, Mr. McGowan's was based primarily on the victim selecting his photograph from a police lineup."

Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project in New York was one of the lawyers representing McGowan.

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