Convicted Rapist Charles Chatman Exonerated by DNA Evidence

On January 3, the Associated Press reported that after spending 27 years in prison, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) evidence helped prove the innocence of Charles Chatman of Dallas, Texas. Picked from a police lineup by a woman who had been sexually assaulted, Chatman spent more than half his life behind bars for a crime that forensic investigators now know he did not commit. At the time of his arrest, Chatman lived 5 houses away from the victim, but said that he did not know her.

Prisons across the country are filled with inmates who proclaim innocence, but hundreds such as Charles Chatman actually are telling the truth and have been freed through the efforts of such groups as the Innocence Project. Convicted by a criminal justice system that would rather send 100 innocent people to jail than allow one criminal to go free, Chatman is the latest person freed by DNA evidence:

DNA Exoneration No. 1: John Jerome White (Freed after 27 years)

In 1980, John Jerome White was convicted of breaking into the home of 74-year-old woman, robbing and raping her in the process. Despite finding hairs at the scene of the crime, authorities at that time relied on eyewitness accounts to convict White, but modern DNA tests showed that the hairs belonged to someone other than White. He was released from prison on December 10, 2007.

Cases such as Charles Chatman's and John Jerome White's have forced police departments to take a hard look at their evidence gathering processes and the reliability of the traditional police line-up, a process in which a suspected felon stands with other people of the same height and build. The victim or witness to the crime must then select the alleged perpetrator from this line-up.

Source: Associated Press, "DNA evidence clears man after 27 years"

DNA Exoneration No. 2: Yusef Salaam and the Central Park Jogger