"An elderly man who spent 24 years in prison for his daughter's death in a fire before his conviction was overturned will remain free now that an eastern Pennsylvania prosecutor has decided to drop the case. Han Tak Lee, 80, from Queens, New York, had taken his mentally ill daughter Ji Yun Lee, 20, to a retreat in Pennsylvania in 1989, where she died after their cabin burned down. Mr Lee, a native of South Korea who became a US citizen about 30 years ago, was accused of setting fire to the house, and convicted for arson in 1990. (PHOTO CAPTION): Truly free at last: Han Tak Lee, spent 24 years in prison after being found responsible for his daughter's death in a fire in 1989, before a judge threw out his arson-murder conviction last year.
However,
Mr Lee was exonerated and freed in August 2014, after a judge concluded
that his 1990 conviction was based on since-discredited scientific
theories about arson. Monroe
County District Attorney David Christine said Tuesday that he decided
not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, calling the chance of success
too remote. He said a retrial of the 80-year-old is impossible due to loss of evidence and witnesses. 'We
believe we have done our best to fulfill our obligation to defend the
jury's verdict against Mr. Lee,' Christine said. 'All legal avenues to
preserve the verdict have now been exhausted.' Lee's
longtime attorney, Peter Goldberger, said he was 'very gratified that
justice has finally prevailed and that this long sad saga is over.' PHOTO CAPTION: "Wrongfully jailed: Mr Lee, pictured
as he is lead to the State Police barracks for processing in 1989, had
taken his mentally ill daughter Ji Yun Lee, 20, to a retreat, where she
died after their cabin burned down." PHOTO CAPTION: "Quite the different walk: However, Mr
Lee was exonerated and freed in August 2014, after a judge concluded
that his 1990 conviction was based on since-discredited scientific
theories about arson." Lee's
conviction was one of dozens to be called into question around the
United States amid revolutionary changes in investigators' understanding
of how an intentionally set fire can be distinguished from an
accidental one. A
state police fire marshal testified at Lee's trial that the wood in the
cabin was deeply charred and blistered, that the windows had a series
of tiny fractures and that he had found at least eight points of origin
for the fire, all evidence of arson, according to the orthodoxies of the
day. The jury convicted Lee of murder and sentenced him to life without
parole. After years of appeals, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
granted Lee's request for an independent review of the evidence. The
review, led by a magistrate judge, concluded the expert testimony used
to convict him was based on 'little more than superstition.'"
