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DNA Testing Clears Colorado Man After Serving 18 Years

By Jeralyn, Section Innocence Cases
Posted on Mon Apr 30, 2012 at 08:25:38 PM EST
Tags: wrongful conviction, Robert Dewey, DNA evidence (all tags)
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Robert Dewey, a Colorado inmate sentenced to life without parole for murder, left jail today a free man after serving 18 years of his sentence. DNA testing, using a technology not available at the time of his conviction, proved he was innocent.

Dewey is the 290th person to be exonerated nationwide on the basis of DNA evidence proving factual innocence -- meaning someone else committed the crime.

"I find that Mr. Dewey is factually innocent of the crimes of which he was accused of in this case," the judge said, noting Dewey had spent more the 6,000 days behind bars. "Mr. Dewey is now again a free man."

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The testing (done on semen on a blanket)matched another man, Douglas Thames, who is already serving a life sentence for another murder. Thames is eligibile for parole in 2035 because he was a juvenile when convicted of that murder. Prosecutors intend to charge him with this crime.

Congrats to Colorado's Justice Review Project, which took on Dewey's case. Created in 2009 to review innocence claims based on DNA evidence, it is their first success. Prosecutors today also praised law enforcement's dedication in reinvestigating the offense.

Prosecutors said at the time of Dewey's trial that they faced problems with poor evidence handling by Palisade police officers, the Mesa County Sheriff's Department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said today:

"This office prosecuted the best available suspect with the best available evidence... "Thank God we are able to be here today to release an innocent man."

Dewey is likely to file suit. In Colorado's other prominent case of wrongful conviction, Timothy Masters received about $10 million.

How do you put a price tag on 18 years of someone's life?

More on the Justice Review Project and the case from the