A Texas Hispanic man was wrongly convicted of aggravated sexual assault.
He wasn’t freed until 4 years later; one of many innocent men who
had been convicted due to testimony by a DNA tester who provided false results.
The crime of rape took place in the victim's apartment. The victim
described her attacker, whom she glanced at during the attack, as Hispanic,
about six feet tall, and wearing a white cap. Although police questioned
a man who was wearing clothes similar to this description, no arrest was
made. Instead, the police charged the man with the crime months later.
The victim failed to identify the Hispanic male sexual assaulter in several
photo lineups. She made one identification from a sketch lineup and later
identified him in a live lineup. What really put the nail in the coffin
so to speak for the accused man was false testimony from the person who
conducted the DNA testing performed on the evidence. In cross examination,
the DNA tester again falsely reiterated his findings and pronounced that
he was absolutely sure of his results and his testimony.
A subsequent reexamination of the DNA report yielded completely different
results. Testing had not even been completed when the man conducting the
DNA testing issued his report. The final test results, completed after
the trial, revealed that the Hispanic male was, in fact, excluded as the
depositor of spermatozoa on the victim's clothing. Based on these
test results, his conviction was overturned and he was freed from prison.
This man had spent nearly 4 years in prison on a twelve year sentence for
a crime he did not commit.
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=2988