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Man Exonerated for 1981 DC Rape Conviction - Released from Prison After DNA Tests

A man who spent 28 years behind bars for a rape and murder he said he didn't commit walked out of a federal prison in Arizona on Tuesday with $75 and a bus ticket to Ohio after DNA testing showed he was innocent.

The conviction of Donald Eugene Gates, 58, was based largely on the testimony of an FBI forensic analyst whose work later came under fire and a hair analysis technique that has been discredited.=

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Draper said she was unaware of the problems with Malone's testimony until the defense filed its motion this month seeking to have Gates' conviction thrown out.

Based on Malone's report, prosecutors had claimed hairs taken from Gates and hairs found on the victim were "microscopically indistinguishable."

Even leaving aside the allegations against Malone, the technique he relied on — microscopic hair analysis — has been discredited, Levick said. She cited a 2009 report by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences that said there was "no scientific support" for using hair comparisons for identification.

Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, said judges, as well as prosecutors, need to be informed when crime lab analyses are called into question.

"The important part of all these exoneration cases is to learn lessons from them," he said.

Gates asked for and got DNA testing in 1988. However, the DNA sample available at the time was insufficient to draw any conclusions with the technology then available.

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Mr. Stelly regularly appears in the courts of the City of Richmond, Henrico County, Chesterfield County, Goochland County, and Hanover County.

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