"A
Denver, Colorado, man who spent more than 28 years in prison for a crime his
lawyers say he didn’t commit, took his first steps towards freedom Tuesday
after a judge vacated his conviction and ordered a new trial, according to a
news story in the Denver Post. Clarence
Moses-EL, now 60, was convicted of a 1987 sexual assault in which a woman was
brutally beaten, dragged and raped, but has always maintained his innocence.........Judge
Gerdes’ decision appears to hinge partly on the fact that another man has
confessed on numerous occasions to committing the crime for which Moses-EL was
imprisoned. The
Denver Post remarks that those
confessions, made by one LC Jackson, as well as blood tests indicating that the
attacker had a different blood type than Moses-EL, were “some of the reasons
Gerdes ordered a new trial.” Meanwhile,
the outlet adds, scrutiny into the victim’s original testimony reveal
additional inconsistencies which may point to Moses-EL’s innocence: “In 1987,
when police, her sister and a neighbor asked who had attacked her, the woman
gave three possibilities,” reports the Post.
“A couple of days later, however, she told police for the first time that
Moses-EL, a neighbor, was her attacker. . . . His identity had come to her in a
dream, she said,” reported the Post.
Moses-EL
was ultimately convicted of sexual assault, assault and burglary and sentenced
to 48 years in prison. While incarcerated, a court granted him DNA
testing of the collected evidence but, says the Denver Post, the police “mistakenly destroyed the evidence before
it could be analyzed.” Moses-EL
will now await the Denver district attorney’s decision on whether or not to
proceed in retrying the case."
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Bulletin: Clarence Moses-EL: Colorado; Conviction vacated, new trial ordered, after 28 years behind bars, Denver Post reports; "Judge Gerdes’ decision appears to hinge partly on the fact that another man has confessed on numerous occasions to committing the crime for which Moses-EL was imprisoned. The Denver Post remarks that those confessions, made by one LC Jackson, as well as blood tests indicating that the attacker had a different blood type than Moses-EL, were “some of the reasons Gerdes ordered a new trial.”..."Meanwhile, the outlet adds, scrutiny into the victim’s original testimony reveal additional inconsistencies which may point to Moses-EL’s innocence: “In 1987, when police, her sister and a neighbor asked who had attacked her, the woman gave three possibilities,” reports the Post. “A couple of days later, however, she told police for the first time that Moses-EL, a neighbor, was her attacker. . . . His identity had come to her in a dream, she said,” reported the Post. Moses-EL was ultimately convicted of sexual assault, assault and burglary and sentenced to 48 years in prison. While incarcerated, a court granted him DNA testing of the collected evidence but, says the Denver Post, the police “mistakenly destroyed the evidence before it could be analyzed.” The Innocence Project.
