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On DNA: "Unindicted Co-Ejaculator" Isn't Just a Great Band Name

01.01.70

Radley Balko , a Twitter must-follow, a Reason/HuffPo must-read, a man who does some of the best investigative reporting on civil liberties and the abject failures of our broken criminal justice system, tweeted “If you read nothing else today, read this” bright and early on Thursday morning. He ain’t lyin’.

Andrew Martin’s “ The Prosecution’s Case Against DNA ” was actually published in the New York Times Magazine last weekend, but it must have gotten lost in the Thanksgiving weekend shuffle. The story — of sexual assaults and murders, coerced confessions, exonerating DNA evidence and the prosecutors that won’t allow that evidence to cloud their one-track minds — is one that almost makes you want to become a criminal defense attorney.

It all starts with Juan Rivera, who has now been sitting in prison for nearly two decades for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. His confession followed 24 hours of “near constant interrogation.” He was convicted and is serving a life sentence, even though DNA testing in 2005 conclusively ruled his semen had not been inside the young victim. In the mind of the prosecutors, this 11-year-old girl must have been sexually active and had intercourse with someone else before Rivera killed her.

Source: HyperVocal