Oddee online - Innocence Project online -
After serving nearly 18 years of a 20-year prison sentence for the rape of a housekeeper, two men were set free and compensated in millions when DNA evidence exonerated them of the crime. Larry Davis and Alan Northrop were locked away in Clark County, Washington, in 1993 when DNA evidence wasn’t available.
But when it did become available, the University of Washington’s Innocence Project picked up the case and went to work, eventually freeing and exonerating Northrop and Davis in 2010.
The men settled with the county for $5.25 million each. Oddee online report ‘10 of the Worst Wrongful Imprisonment Cases’
A Washington State judge tossed out the convictions of two men Wednesday after attorneys at Innocence Project Northwest presented substantial new evidence — including DNA test results — pointing to the men’s innocence. Alan Northrop was freed Wednesday after a state judge vacated his sentence. His co-defendant, Larry Davis, was released in January. Both had served nearly 17 years in prison.
They were convicted of a 1993 home invasion and rape based almost exclusively on the victim’s eyewitness identification, despite the fact that she was blindfolded and only got a fleeting look at her attackers. New DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project Northwest excludes Davis and Northrop points to other perpetrators, according to media reports.
When the judge announced Wednesday that she was vacating the men’s convictions, the courtroom erupted with shouts from the gallery. Innocence Project online article 22nd April 2010, ‘In Washington, Sentences Tossed After 17 Years’