Rickey Dale Wyatt; Texas; Suing Dallas County, City Hall for wrongfully locking him up for 31 Years; Inconclusive blood test said by forensic analyst to put him among the 20% of the population who could have committed the crimes. Dallas Observer;

STORY: "Ricky Dale Wyatt is suing Dallas County, City Hall for wrongfully locking him up for 31 years," by reporter Eric Nicholson, published by the Dallas Observer on May 9, 2014; GIST; "Rickey Dale Wyatt walked out of Judge John Creuzot's Dallas courtroom on January 4, 2012, finally a free man. After 31 years in prison, his 1981 aggravated rape conviction was set aside after Creuzot and District Attorney Craig Watkins' Conviction Integrity Unit agreed that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence at trial. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeal formally vacated the conviction four months later. "Now," Wyatt's attorneys write in a civil suit filed Thursday, "he seeks his own justice.".........Wyatt, who spent more time behind bars than any other wrongfully convicted inmate in Texas, had been serving a 99 year sentence. A Dallas County jury found him guilty of grabbing a woman off a South Dallas street and raping her in a vacant lot in 1980, one of a cluster of three rapes police believed were committed by the same attacker.........According to the lawsuit, police fabricated and withheld information to bolster the case against Wyatt. Two of the three victims ultimately IDed Wyatt as their attacker, but not the first time around. None recognized him when first shown his picture as part of a photo lineup, nor did one of the victims pick him out of a live lineup. This information was concealed by police. As for the discrepancy between the rapist described to police -- clean-shaven, between 170 and 200 pounds -- and the 140-pound, mustachioed Wyatt, a Dallas police officer explained explained that Wyatt had lost 30 pounds over 10 days. Also at issue was a blood test done on samples taken from the victim's rape kit. The test was inconclusive, but a forensic analyst from Dallas County's Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences testified that it put Wyatt among the 20 percent of the population who could have committed the crimes. Prosecutors proclaimed that "all the scientific evidence found was consistent with [Wyatt's] guilt." Wyatt didn't know any of this when he appealed the case. Further complicating his appeals was the claim made in 2004 by Dallas County's Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences that it had lost the biological evidence against him. When it reappeared 18 months later, a DNA test excluded Wyatt as the rapist. That was enough to convince Watkins' office to open its case file, which revealed the withheld evidence, which led to Wyatt's conviction being overturned........."I represented Michael Morton, and Michael was declared 'actually innocent' by the state," Raley says. "Those are two very important words. That entitles them to state compensation. Those words were not used in connection with Rickey." Wyatt is instead staking a claim on a provision of federal law allowing injured parties to sue over the deprivation of their constitutional rights. His attorneys argue that the willful manipulation of evidence by police was a violation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection. "Law enforcement cannot conceal evidence of innocence or fabricate evidence," Raley says. "There are several examples of the Dallas police doing both."" The entire story can be found at: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/05/rickey_dale_wyatt_wants_dallas.php PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.   I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:   http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html   I look forward to hearing from readers at: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;