See previous September 15, 2016) story by reporter Dia Wall, KSHB; - '34 years later Rodney Lincoln gets chance to prove his innocence in 1982 St. Louis murder' - by reporter Dia Wall at the link below: "Rodney Lincoln has been in prison 34 years for a crime he says he did not commit. In 1982, Joanne Tate was murdered in her St. Louis apartment. Her two daughters, just four and seven years old at the time, were both violently attacked. The oldest would work with police to create a composite sketch and nearly a month later, identifying Lincoln as the murderer. At trial, prosecutors told the jury they found Lincoln's hair at the home and Tate's daughter, Melissa, testified. The first trial ended with a hung jury, but the second ended with a conviction and sentence of life for Lincoln in prison without parole. "I thought that these were just good people doing their job and they just made a mistake and just nobody found out the mistake yet," Rodney's daughter, Kay, said. Since then she determined. "Wait a minute, these weren't just good people doing a good job. They set out to convict an innocent man and they knew what they were doing." In 2003, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's office randomly selected several cases for DNA review. Lincoln's was chosen. The pubic hair from the scene that was presented at trial did not belong to Lincoln. Years later, that same office tested the rest of the evidence collected from the apartment. No male DNA was detected on any of it. No match for Lincoln. Then came a bombshell from the little girl who testified at the trial, now an adult. Melissa DeBoer told the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's office, "He wasn't in my house that night. He was not there. He was never there. I would be willing to take a lie detector or whatever you want but he was not in the house. He did not kill my mom. Lincoln is still in prison at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.........Now, they hope the lack of DNA evidence and Melissa's recantation will set Lincoln free. "There's also no evidence that ties him to the crime at all. The question is how do they possibly think he's guilty," said Tricia Bushnell, legal director for the Midwest Innocence Project. "DNA testing showed the hair was not his and the victim now says it absolutely was not Rodney Lincoln. There's absolutely nothing else that they could have a conviction stand on." "They have fought since 2003 to protect a conviction with no credibility, no legitimacy and no reason to do so," Kay stressed. "They was wrong about the print. I was right. They was wrong about the hair. I was right. They said the strongest thing in my conviction was the victim's statement and they're right," Lincoln said. "The strongest thing in my conviction is the victim's statement that I'm not the one that did it." Lincoln has a message for the judges who will soon decide his fate: "Look at the evidence. If they do that, I'm going home."
http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/34-years-later-rodney-lincoln-gets-chance-to-prove-his-innocence-in-1982-st-louis-murder
