DNA Identifies 1982 Texas Rapist

Associated Press, January 30, 2008, DALLAS — The dramatic events that culminated Wednesday in prosecutors identifying the real rapist in a 1982 crime that put the wrong man behind bars had the simplest of starts: a basic Internet search.

"I typed in 'aerobics' and 'sex assault'," said Matt Kelley of the Innocence Project, a New York City-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. "And sure enough I got this guy."

That would be Sidney Alvin Goodyear, the man the Dallas County district attorney said was guilty of the crime that sent Steven Charles Phillips to prison for 25 years.

Goodyear won't be prosecuted, though. He died 10 years ago in prison at age 50.

The Innocence Project stumbled across Goodyear's name about 18 months ago after lawyers there decided to take on Phillips' case. Among the crimes for which Phillips was behind bars was a series of bizarre assaults in which the perpetrator went into aerobics classes, forced women to disrobe at gunpoint and then made them hold poses.

Kelley, who was part of the team that researches the cases of new clients, ran across a 20-year-old newspaper story about Goodyear, who was convicted in California for similar crimes in 1982. The story mentioned Goodyear had also lived in Texas.

"How many people could be breaking into aerobics classes and making people pose?" Kelley said. "It just seemed so rare to me."

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Palm Beach County to Test DNA in "Gateway Crimes"

Boca Raton News, January 25, 2008 -- On the theory that youth become involved in so-called “gateway crimes” such as auto theft or burglary prior to becoming involved in more violent crimes, Palm Beach County Commissioners have approved a $127,455 interlocal agreement with the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office for DNA testing materials, equipment and training.

The Law Enforcement Planning Council, representing the Law Enforcement component of the Youth Violence Prevention Project, has approved a plan for FY ‘08 that includes these items, commissioners said.

Commissioners said that DNA evidence for property crimes “is given a low priority compared to violent crimes.” The purchase of these items and with training, the PBSO will be able to process the DNA on these property crimes, which will result in arrests before the youth get involved in more serious crimes.”

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A Moral Debt As Yet Unpaid

Here's an op-ed piece from Louisiana that, with a few name changes, applies just as well to the situation here in Florida. Innocent people who've spent years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit are not getting compensated. And the "lucky" ones, the ones who do receive some compensation amount, usually do so only after spending years fighting for it.

In Florida, where Alan Crotzer will be trying for the third time to get our legislature to compensate him for the 24 years, 6 months and 13 days that he spent behind bars for a crime someone else committed, one wonders where is the moral compass guiding our lawmakers? Are they so afraid of appearing soft on crime that they avoid doing the right thing for those found innocent of crimes, as if the association with crime itself is too close?

If our representatives and senators were truly concerned about crime, they would be outraged at the injustices perpetrated when innocents are locked up and, coincidentally, the guilty are left free to commit more crimes. Freeing (and compensating) the innocent is not being soft on crime. It is instead being wedded to the truth, the simple truth that innocent people do not belong behind bars, period. It is what we do when we discover those instances where mistakes were made, and how we treat the victims of those mistakes, that add to our measure as a civilized society.

The Shreveport Times, January 27, 2008 -- "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.—" The Rev. Theodore Parker, 19th century minister and abolitionist

There are those who deserve to be in prison and sometimes there are those who just don't belong there. I am always particularly moved when innocent men are released from prison. I am, however, always saddened that they spent one day behind bars. It's refreshing on one hand that eventually the system allows exoneration, but depressing on the other hand that the system sometimes incarcerates the innocent.

Rickey Johnson spent nearly 26 years in one of America's bloodiest and notorious prisons for a rape he knew he didn't commit. Of course, no one beyond his closest friends and relatives believed him because everyone locked up says they didn't do it. Not Rickey Johnson. He spent almost three decades in a place where he didn't belong paying a debt to society he didn't owe. Thanks to DNA evidence he has been released. He is now a free man.

How does this continue to happen? No one is dare suggesting the criminal justice system come to a grinding halt or that a moratorium be placed on all harsh sentences. But, the process of justice must be reviewed to include all avenues of proving innocence. Of course, the legal standard is "innocent until proven guilty," but once a defendant is in a courtroom, the opposite is usually true.

A young man with potential was wrongly identified and sentenced to spend the rest of his life as a number. While he stresses he isn't bitter it would be understandable. If he truly isn't bitter he's a better man than most. At some point his cause certainly seemed hopeless and perhaps he had resigned himself to live out his existence on "The Farm." To call what happened to Rickey Johnson and others like him across America a "miscarriage of justice" is an understatement. It is good to know that groups like the Innocence Project are fighting to show there are flaws in the system.

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Waiting for the State to do the Right Thing

Associated Press, Published January 21, 2008, TALLAHASSEE - Alan Crotzer is working at a landscaping company, hoping one day to be compensated for the 24 years he spent in prison for a rape he didn't commit.

Florida lawmakers have for a couple of years failed to pass a bill to pay him - and he's again asking the Legislature for $1.25-million for the two decades of freedom he gave up.

It's too bad for Crotzer that he doesn't live somewhere else. Several states have automatic compensation for people who have been wrongfully imprisoned and then released - something that's happening more and more because of increasing use of DNA to prove innocence.

But Florida remains one of 28 states that don't guarantee compensation for those who spent precious years behind bars for something they didn't do. Nine men have been freed by DNA in Florida in recent years, but only one has received money.

Crotzer, 47, is seeking money for himself - but he'd rather the state make money available for anyone in his situation. He said most men released after years behind bars - especially those who were, like him, young when imprisoned - have a hard time starting over without help. They're usually broke, and most have no job prospects. All they really know is prison life.

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Improve compensation laws

The following editorial from a Louisiana newspaper could have been written (with only the name and case facts changed) by any of a number of papers in states across the country. Even though the federal government passed legislation in 2004 that encourages all states to have laws compensating their wrongly imprisoned citizens, only 22 have so far followed through.

The Shreveport Times, January 20, 2008 -- Rickey Johnson's release from prison after 25 years puts him in the category of nine other Louisianans who were exonerated of crimes for which they were wrongly imprisoned.

Johnson, of Leesville, was officially cleared of the aggravated rape charge of which he was convicted in 1983. The photo in which Johnson was identified was eight years old. He was convicted of the rape in January 1983 and sentenced to life without parole.

According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, a factor in 75 percent of the 212 DNA exonerations nationwide.

The Innocence Project, established in 1992, uses DNA testing technology and the help of law students to review past criminal trials to determine if accused individuals were convicted under false pretenses.

But what's next for Johnson? "I can never get back what I lost and I'm not going to try. I'm just going to focus on the future," he said.

Confronting an ever-changing world after serving years in prison can be challenging at best. Social skills diminished by countless years in prison don't translate well in the outside world. And what about job skills? And education?

No amount of money can get back what was lost by serving a quarter of a century in prison for something that he didn't do. Certainly a system that robbed Johnson of a significant part of his life owes him more than a get-out-of-jail-free pass. But it's a start.

Although in Louisiana, it's happening rarely, with compensation awarded to only two of the 10 men who have been exonerated by the Innocence Project.

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NOTE: Although Louisiana has a compensation law on the books, it currently pays only $15,000 per year of wrongful incarceration with a cap of $150,000. That's well below the federal standard of $50,000 per year ($100,000 for death row cases).

Of course it's still better than Florida where exonerees must go to the state capitol (without benefit of a bill on the books) and beseech the legislature for compensation in the form of an individual claims bill. Ask Alan Crotzer what that's like; he's made the trip for two years straight and is set to return, hat in hand, for a third round of pleading.

It's a disgraceful and humiliating exercise that should embarrass every legislator in Tallahassee. When the State has robbed a man of more than half his life, it's rather unsettling to realize that the victim must then spend years begging said State to do the right thing. Maybe this detestable dance explains why, of Florida's nine exonerees, only Wilton Dedge has so far been paid.

Freed After Serving 30 Years, Illinois Man Still Fights to Prove Innocence

Medill Reports, Chicago, by Rob Runyan, Jan 17, 2008 -- After serving 30 years in prison in a double-murder case, Johnnie Lee Savory is free on parole, but he still feels trapped by his past. Now Savory, 45, is reaching out to his last option for exoneration, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to ask the governor to order DNA testing that Savory is sure will finally clear his name.

“It wasn’t about me coming home,” Savory said in a news conference Thursday. “It was about me proving my innocence.”

What sets Savory's mission apart from many others is that he has several former prosecutors pushing for the DNA test.

Former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan and four other federal prosecutors sent a letter to Blagojevich this week asking that he order the test.

In addition, authors John Grisham, Noam Chomsky and Studs Terkel and a host of lawyers, professors and religious leaders also lent their names to Savory's cause.

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DNA Exonerates Louisiana Man after 26 Years

KALB.com, News Channel 5, Alexandria, Louisiana, January 14, 2008 -- A man who has been behind bars for 26 years for a rape he did not commit is a free man. Rickey Johnson was released today in Many after DNA results proved his innocence. He was 26 when he was arrested and is now 52.

The following is a press release from the Innocence Project, a group that works to exonerate wrongly convicted people through DNA testing.

“Rickey Johnson lost more than a quarter of a century, nearly his entire adult life, to a wrongful conviction. He had three young children when he was arrested, and a fourth was born shortly after he was incarcerated; all of those children are now adults, and he has grandchildren he’s never met,” said Vanessa Potkin, the Innocence Project Staff Attorney representing Johnson. “Rickey Johnson’s long nightmare will be in vain if we don’t learn from it and make sure other people in Louisiana have access to DNA testing that can prove their innocence.” In Baton Rouge tomorrow, Johnson will join other people exonerated by DNA testing in Louisiana to call for statewide access to DNA testing and policies to ensure that evidence is properly preserved so DNA testing can be conducted.

Johnson was arrested in 1982 for the rape of a woman in Many in July 1982. The victim in the crime said a man broke into her home at 1 a.m. and stayed for several hours, during which he raped her. She later identified Johnson in a photo array which included an eight-year-old photo of Johnson and just two other photos. Johnson was convicted of the rape in January 1983 and sentenced to life without parole. He has been at Louisiana’s Angola Farm Prison ever since.
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“If police and prosecutors had not focused on Rickey Johnson so early in their investigation – and if a proper eyewitness identification procedure had been used instead of a deeply flawed photo lineup – the real perpetrator might have been brought to justice sooner and might not have been free to rape another woman in the same apartment complex,” Potkin said. “Anyone who doubts that our criminal justice system is stronger when we take steps to prevent wrongful convictions should take a close look at Rickey Johnson’s case.”

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