Luis Figueroa: Connecticut: Mistaken witness identity: Saved by DNA: A riveting portrait of the enormous harm caused to an individual by wrongful (rape) prosecutions: Connecticut Law Tribune (Reporter Robert Storace) reports that the Connecticut man cleared of two rapes after wrongfully spending twelve years behind bars has been awarded $6.9 million, thanks to DNA testing that exonerated him...(Imagine being innocent and hearing Judge Robert Devlin say the following words: "Figueroa appeared alone at his plea hearing, accompanied only by his attorney. The victim spoke to Judge Robert Devlin of New Haven Superior Court about her post-attack trauma and her bouts with suicidal thoughts. Devlin later said that Figueroa’s Alford plea notwithstanding, he had no doubt that the attack occurred the way the victim said it had. He told Figueroa that “I will … take you out of society for a long period of time for the best years of your life … and to make you a person that does not walk among decent law-abiding people. And you deserve that.”

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The rape conviction stems from alleged assaults on two separate women, in March and April 1995. In both cases, the alleged victims were shown photographs the police had of Figueroa, who had been arrested before for two larcenies related to car theft and an assault stemming from a street fight. In the claimant’s post-hearing memorandum, Paine wrote that, with regard to the second sexual assault, “Despite the fact that the victim never identified [Figueroa] as her assailant, [he] was nevertheless charged with her assault on the basis of the Yale student’s [the first victim] photo identification of him as her perpetrator.” 

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: “The claimant was a young man still wondering where his life would lead when a mistaken identification set him on a road of suffering and shame,” Scott wrote. “A day came when the truth was known—he was innocent—and that truth should have eased his pain, but those who knew it did not share it and he continued to suffer for five long years more.”  Scott was referring to the fact that the DNA results were known in 2009, but not made public until a Freedom of Information Act request was made five years later. Scott wrote that the truth “helped ease his pain, but it could not erase it. The damage was done. … Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant’s path back to health and peace.”

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STORY: "Connecticut  man cleared of two rapes after more than a decade behind bars," by Reporter Robert Storace, published by The Connecticut Law Tribune, on September 16, 2021.

KEY POINTS: ' Claimant Luis Figueroa who DNA exonerated from two rapes has been awarded $6.9M. Figueroa is now married and trying to get his life back on track. Figueroa spent 12 years in prison based on mistaken identity in the alleged rapes.'

GIST: A central Connecticut man who spent 12 years in prison for two rapes—that now even the state says he didn’t commit—has been awarded $6.9 million, thanks to DNA testing that exonerated him.

Plaintiffs counsel Rosemarie Paine of Jacobs & Dow in New Haven said DNA results were made public in 2014 and cleared her client, Luis Figueroa.

But those 12 years he spent behind bars, plus five more on probation during which he had to enlist in mandated sex offender programs, “turned his life upside down,” she said. “The DNA left no doubt in anyone’s mind that he did not commit the sex assaults, but what the [claims] commissioner saw was the irrefutable evidence of how this mistaken identification and wrongful conviction infected every area of his life,” Paine said Thursday. “It held him back in every way. Because he was listed as sex offender, it was difficult for him to get housing and he was frequently homeless.”

The rape conviction stems from alleged assaults on two separate women, in March and April 1995.

 In both cases, the alleged victims were shown photographs the police had of Figueroa, who had been arrested before for two larcenies related to car theft and an assault stemming from a street fight. In the claimant’s post-hearing memorandum, Paine wrote that, with regard to the second sexual assault, “Despite the fact that the victim never identified [Figueroa] as her assailant, [he] was nevertheless charged with her assault on the basis of the Yale student’s [the first victim] photo identification of him as her perpetrator.” 

Figueroa was incarcerated from 1995 to 2007. He was sent to prison when he was 20, and is now in his mid-40s. 

In her memorandum of decision in the matter, Claims Commissioner Christy Scott said Figueroa suffered unfairly. 

“The claimant was a young man still wondering where his life would lead when a mistaken identification set him on a road of suffering and shame,” Scott wrote. “A day came when the truth was known—he was innocent—and that truth should have eased his pain, but those who knew it did not share it and he continued to suffer for five long years more.” 

Scott was referring to the fact that the DNA results were known in 2009, but not made public until a Freedom of Information Act request was made five years later. Scott wrote that the truth “helped ease his pain, but it could not erase it. The damage was done. … Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant’s path back to health and peace.”

 Scott awarded Figueroa $6.9 million, which has since been disbursed. Despite what Figueroa went through, Paine said, “he had unending compassion for others. 

He has also forgiven the prosecutors. His desire is to see that this never happens to anyone else.” 

Today, Paine said, her client is married with three children. “The compensation also provided for funds for vocational rehabilitation. He is middle-aged and is attempting to establish a work history. He loves carpentry, loves fixing things and likes driving. He also wants to establish a job that will allow him to be home for his children.” 

Allison Near joined Jacobs & Dow in July and, while she didn’t work on the case with Paine, she did represent hundreds of indigent clients both in her role as a public defender and assigned counsel. 

“I appreciate the work Rosemarie did as it was creative and comprehensive and educated the commission about Mr. Figueroa’s story,” Near said Thursday. “She pulled all these different pieces of Mr. Figueroa’s life together. I appreciate how time-consuming it was and the amount of creativity that was required.”

 Representing the state was Matthew Beizer, an attorney with the Office of the Attorney General. Elizabeth Benton, a spokeswoman for the office, didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.law.com/ctlawtribune/2021/09/16/6-9m-award-for-connecticut-man-cleared-of-2-rapes-after-more-than-a-decade-behind-bars/?kw=%246.9M%20Award%20for%20Connecticut%20Man%20Cleared%20of%202%20Rapes%20After%20More%20Than%20a%20Decade%20Behind%20Bars&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_content=20210916&utm_term=clt

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NATIONAL REGISTRY OF EXONERATIONS: Entry by

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QUOTE ONE  OF THE DAY:  "Figueroa appeared alone at his plea hearing, accompanied only by his attorney. The victim spoke to Judge Robert Devlin of New Haven Superior Court about her post-attack trauma and her bouts with suicidal thoughts.  Devlin later said that Figueroa’s Alford plea notwithstanding, he had no doubt that the attack occurred the way the victim said it had. He told Figueroa that “I will … take you out of society for a long period of time for the best years of your life … and to make you a person that does not walk among decent law-abiding people. And you deserve that.

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QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY:  "After his exoneration, Figueroa filed a claim in 2016 for state compensation for his wrongful conviction. During a hearing on his claim, he testified about his decision to plead guilty, using an Alford plea.  “At the beginning I didn’t want to take that plea, because I was innocent," he said. "And [my attorney] told me if you take this to trial, you are going to be in there for a long time. I mean and I was thinking about ten years. And he said no, you’re going to be there for a long time, probably thirty or forty years…Then I asked him about the offer exactly what this means. He told me you take the knowledge about the crime that they got enough evidence to convict me, and you are going to plead guilty, but you are not taking responsibility of what happened. So you’ll be able to reopen the case and come back to court. So I say sure, I want to do that.”  On December 24, 2020, Claims Commissioner Christy Scott awarded Figueroa just under $7 million. In her decision, she wrote, "Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant's path back to health and peace.""

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GIST: "On March 11, 1995, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut reported that she had been attacked and raped as she tried to enter her apartment near campus. The woman was treated at a local hospital, and evidentiary samples were collected using a rape kit. 

The woman told New Haven police that her attacker was a young, Hispanic man. Detectives inputted her descriptions into a computer program, which created a list of 70 potential suspects. The woman looked at photos of the men and said that 20-year-old Luis Figueroa was her assailant. She would later make a second photo identification.

Figueroa had grown up in a household that was often dysfunctional. He suffered from seizures, likely caused by a traumatic brain injury he received as a child. At the time of the Yale attack, Figueroa was considered an escaped felon, because he had walked away from a court-ordered drug-treatment program imposed as part of a plea deal to resolve charges of second-degree assault and third-degree larceny. A warrant was issued for his arrest on March 28, 1995.

On April 1, 1995, a second woman, a student at Southern Connecticut State University, reported she was raped. She was also treated at a hospital, and evidence was collected. She said she had met her assailant at a club, left with him voluntarily, but was later sexually assaulted. The woman never identified Figueroa, but her friends said he looked like the assailant. 

Police arrested Figueroa at his mother’s apartment on April 3, 1995. She would later say that her son told her he “would be coming right back.”

At the police station, Figueroa gave a statement and said he remembered having sex with a woman at around the same time frame that the Yale student reported the rape. Figueroa said the sex was consensual and described his partner as a Hispanic woman wearing a long skirt. He said they had met at a bar. By contrast, the Yale student was white and was wearing jeans. 

On November 6, 1995, state prosecutors offered Figueroa a plea deal of 15 years in prison on the March 11 sexual assault. He turned it down. On January 16, 1996, prosecutors also charged him with sexual assault of the second student, despite the fact that the woman had never identified Figueroa. 

Then, in May 1996, the State of Connecticut Forensic Lab reported the results of the DNA testing on the evidence collected from the second victim. In this case, unlike the first reported sexual assault, there was sufficient genetic material to test with the available technology. Figueroa was excluded as a contributor in the second attack. The charge was dismissed, and the New Haven State Attorney’s Office sweetened the plea deal on the Yale attack to 12 years.

On June 17, 1996, Figueroa accepted the offer and entered an Alford plea of guilty to first-degree sexual assault, first-degree robbery, and first-degree kidnapping. Alford pleas allow defendants to plead guilty without admitting guilt but acknowledging that the state has sufficient evidence to convict. In this instance, the state had a sympathetic witness who had picked Figueroa out of a photo lineup. In addition, Figueroa lacked a strong alibi. 

Figueroa appeared alone at his plea hearing, accompanied only by his attorney. The victim spoke to Judge Robert Devlin of New Haven Superior Court about her post-attack trauma and her bouts with suicidal thoughts. 

Devlin later said that Figueroa’s Alford plea notwithstanding, he had no doubt that the attack occurred the way the victim said it had. He told Figueroa that “I will … take you out of society for a long period of time for the best years of your life … and to make you a person that does not walk among decent law-abiding people. And you deserve that.”

Figueroa remained in prison until March 30, 2007, when he was released on five years of probation, which was enhanced because of his status as a convicted sex offender. He would later state that he suffered physical and mental abuse in prison and discouraged visitors because he was so depressed. He also said that he could have been released earlier if he had admitted his guilt, which he refused to do.

Between the time of Figueroa’s conviction and his parole, there had been significant advances in both the technology that analyzed DNA evidence and the databases that enabled this evidence to be stored and shared. 

In 2007, the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office received notification from the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, that a “hit” had come back on the DNA sample from the April 1, 1995 attack, linking the sample to a convicted felon named Julio Rodriguez. Prosecutors reopened the investigation and obtained a fresh sample from Rodriguez, which confirmed the results from the original sample. Rodriguez was arrested in April 2008. 

James Clark was the assistant state’s attorney responsible for prosecuting Rodriguez. Because the files in the April and March attacks were cross-referenced, Clark became interested in the earlier incident involving the Yale student. 

He would later write: “The cases were strikingly similar in the description of the perpetrator, the location of the crimes, the manner in which the crimes were carried out, and the language the perpetrator used.”

Clark learned of Figueroa’s Alford plea, and after making a chart and comparing details, he thought that an “innocent man may have been wrongly convicted.” He knew that there had been improvements in DNA analysis, and in June 2008, he asked the state forensic lab whether it could analyze the DNA sample from the victim in Figueroa’s case. The lab responded a month later that it could. On August 5, 2008, Clark asked the lab for an update. He did not get a response, and he didn’t follow up. “This failure on my part was unintentional, but clearly negligent,” he said.

Rodriguez pled guilty to the second sexual assault on December 2, 2008 and was sentenced on May 20, 2009. 

Between the time of Rodriguez’s plea and his sentencing, the forensic lab finished its analysis on the DNA from Figueroa’s case. On February 2, 2009, the lab reported that Figueroa was eliminated as a source of the male DNA profile on the vaginal swabbing and nasal-mucous sample. By contrast, the lab reported, Rodriquez could not be eliminated as the source.

The report was sent to the state’s attorney’s office and was apparently placed in the Rodriguez file, but Clark said he never saw it. By this time, he said, he was handling two other prosecutions and another attorney handled Rodriguez’s plea and sentencing.

After his release, Figueroa struggled with substance abuse and other problems. He was frequently homeless because he could not find landlords who would rent to him. He saw his photo on lists of sexual offenders and said people treated him “like a monster.” Figueroa was incarcerated for 185 days in 2011 for violating the strict conditions of his probation. He attended sex-offender treatment groups sessions, where he was scorned and subjected to punishment because he would not admit his guilt. 

Figueroa’s desperate situation, according to later court filings, pushed him into a stormy and at times violent relationship with a woman who also had substance-abuse problems. Their fights resulted in subsequent arrests for assault and breach of the peace that were prosecuted more harshly in part because of Figueroa’s sexual-assault conviction. One of these arrests, in 2013, also triggered probation violations resulting in another 173 days in jail.

In June 2014, Figueroa was in the New Haven County Jail, unable to make bail and awaiting trial on a domestic-violence charge. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the state forensic lab seeking any DNA evidence from his case. Stacey Miranda, an assistant state’s attorney, reviewed the files to respond to Figueroa and discovered the 2009 report that excluded him as a contributor to the genetic sample obtained from the victim in the March 11 attack.

Miranda would later say in an affidavit that “I immediately recognized the exculpatory nature of this report.” 

Working with Figueroa’s attorney, Miranda immediately moved to reduce Figueroa’s bond, allowing his release from jail. She then filed a motion to vacate Figueroa’s conviction and dismiss the charges related to the 1995 sexual assault. That motion was granted on August 1, 2014. She also filed subsequent motions to vacate the convictions tied to Figueroa’s probation violations. 

In an affidavit, Miranda said she took these actions because they were the right and ethical things to do. She also said that she spoke with the victim in this case, telling her that the DNA evidence had excluded Figueroa. Miranda said the woman didn’t wish to be involved with any further court proceedings. 

After his exoneration, Figueroa filed a claim in 2016 for state compensation for his wrongful conviction. During a hearing on his claim, he testified about his decision to plead guilty, using an Alford plea. 

“At the beginning I didn’t want to take that plea, because I was innocent," he said. "And [my attorney] told me if you take this to trial, you are going to be in there for a long time. I mean and I was thinking about ten years. And he said no, you’re going to be there for a long time, probably thirty or forty years…Then I asked him about the offer exactly what this means. He told me you take the knowledge about the crime that they got enough evidence to convict me, and you are going to plead guilty, but you are not taking responsibility of what happened. So you’ll be able to reopen the case and come back to court. So I say sure, I want to do that.” 

On December 24, 2020, Claims Commissioner Christy Scott awarded Figueroa just under $7 million. In her decision, she wrote, "Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant's path back to health and peace.""

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The rape conviction stems from alleged assaults on two separate women, in March and April 1995. In both cases, the alleged victims were shown photographs the police had of Figueroa, who had been arrested before for two larcenies related to car theft and an assault stemming from a street fight. In the claimant’s post-hearing memorandum, Paine wrote that, with regard to the second sexual assault, “Despite the fact that the victim never identified [Figueroa] as her assailant, [he] was nevertheless charged with her assault on the basis of the Yale student’s [the first victim] photo identification of him as her perpetrator.” 

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: “The claimant was a young man still wondering where his life would lead when a mistaken identification set him on a road of suffering and shame,” Scott wrote. “A day came when the truth was known—he was innocent—and that truth should have eased his pain, but those who knew it did not share it and he continued to suffer for five long years more.”  Scott was referring to the fact that the DNA results were known in 2009, but not made public until a Freedom of Information Act request was made five years later. Scott wrote that the truth “helped ease his pain, but it could not erase it. The damage was done. … Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant’s path back to health and peace.”

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STORY: "Connecticut  man cleared of two rapes after more than a decade behind bars," by Reporter Robert Storace, published by The Connecticut Law Tribune, on September 16, 2021.

KEY POINTS: ' Claimant Luis Figueroa who DNA exonerated from two rapes has been awarded $6.9M. Figueroa is now married and trying to get his life back on track. Figueroa spent 12 years in prison based on mistaken identity in the alleged rapes.'

GIST: A central Connecticut man who spent 12 years in prison for two rapes—that now even the state says he didn’t commit—has been awarded $6.9 million, thanks to DNA testing that exonerated him.

Plaintiffs counsel Rosemarie Paine of Jacobs & Dow in New Haven said DNA results were made public in 2014 and cleared her client, Luis Figueroa.

But those 12 years he spent behind bars, plus five more on probation during which he had to enlist in mandated sex offender programs, “turned his life upside down,” she said. “The DNA left no doubt in anyone’s mind that he did not commit the sex assaults, but what the [claims] commissioner saw was the irrefutable evidence of how this mistaken identification and wrongful conviction infected every area of his life,” Paine said Thursday. “It held him back in every way. Because he was listed as sex offender, it was difficult for him to get housing and he was frequently homeless.”

The rape conviction stems from alleged assaults on two separate women, in March and April 1995.

 In both cases, the alleged victims were shown photographs the police had of Figueroa, who had been arrested before for two larcenies related to car theft and an assault stemming from a street fight. In the claimant’s post-hearing memorandum, Paine wrote that, with regard to the second sexual assault, “Despite the fact that the victim never identified [Figueroa] as her assailant, [he] was nevertheless charged with her assault on the basis of the Yale student’s [the first victim] photo identification of him as her perpetrator.” 

Figueroa was incarcerated from 1995 to 2007. He was sent to prison when he was 20, and is now in his mid-40s. 

In her memorandum of decision in the matter, Claims Commissioner Christy Scott said Figueroa suffered unfairly. 

“The claimant was a young man still wondering where his life would lead when a mistaken identification set him on a road of suffering and shame,” Scott wrote. “A day came when the truth was known—he was innocent—and that truth should have eased his pain, but those who knew it did not share it and he continued to suffer for five long years more.” 

Scott was referring to the fact that the DNA results were known in 2009, but not made public until a Freedom of Information Act request was made five years later. Scott wrote that the truth “helped ease his pain, but it could not erase it. The damage was done. … Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant’s path back to health and peace.”

 Scott awarded Figueroa $6.9 million, which has since been disbursed. Despite what Figueroa went through, Paine said, “he had unending compassion for others. 

He has also forgiven the prosecutors. His desire is to see that this never happens to anyone else.” 

Today, Paine said, her client is married with three children. “The compensation also provided for funds for vocational rehabilitation. He is middle-aged and is attempting to establish a work history. He loves carpentry, loves fixing things and likes driving. He also wants to establish a job that will allow him to be home for his children.” 

Allison Near joined Jacobs & Dow in July and, while she didn’t work on the case with Paine, she did represent hundreds of indigent clients both in her role as a public defender and assigned counsel. 

“I appreciate the work Rosemarie did as it was creative and comprehensive and educated the commission about Mr. Figueroa’s story,” Near said Thursday. “She pulled all these different pieces of Mr. Figueroa’s life together. I appreciate how time-consuming it was and the amount of creativity that was required.”

 Representing the state was Matthew Beizer, an attorney with the Office of the Attorney General. Elizabeth Benton, a spokeswoman for the office, didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.law.com/ctlawtribune/2021/09/16/6-9m-award-for-connecticut-man-cleared-of-2-rapes-after-more-than-a-decade-behind-bars/?kw=%246.9M%20Award%20for%20Connecticut%20Man%20Cleared%20of%202%20Rapes%20After%20More%20Than%20a%20Decade%20Behind%20Bars&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_content=20210916&utm_term=clt

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NATIONAL REGISTRY OF EXONERATIONS: Entry by Ken Otterbourg: Contributing factor: Mistaken witness identification: (Link below): 

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QUOTE ONE  OF THE DAY:  "Figueroa appeared alone at his plea hearing, accompanied only by his attorney. The victim spoke to Judge Robert Devlin of New Haven Superior Court about her post-attack trauma and her bouts with suicidal thoughts.  Devlin later said that Figueroa’s Alford plea notwithstanding, he had no doubt that the attack occurred the way the victim said it had. He told Figueroa that “I will … take you out of society for a long period of time for the best years of your life … and to make you a person that does not walk among decent law-abiding people. And you deserve that.

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QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY:  "After his exoneration, Figueroa filed a claim in 2016 for state compensation for his wrongful conviction. During a hearing on his claim, he testified about his decision to plead guilty, using an Alford plea.  “At the beginning I didn’t want to take that plea, because I was innocent," he said. "And [my attorney] told me if you take this to trial, you are going to be in there for a long time. I mean and I was thinking about ten years. And he said no, you’re going to be there for a long time, probably thirty or forty years…Then I asked him about the offer exactly what this means. He told me you take the knowledge about the crime that they got enough evidence to convict me, and you are going to plead guilty, but you are not taking responsibility of what happened. So you’ll be able to reopen the case and come back to court. So I say sure, I want to do that.”  On December 24, 2020, Claims Commissioner Christy Scott awarded Figueroa just under $7 million. In her decision, she wrote, "Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant's path back to health and peace.""

--------------------------------------------------------------

GIST: "On March 11, 1995, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut reported that she had been attacked and raped as she tried to enter her apartment near campus. The woman was treated at a local hospital, and evidentiary samples were collected using a rape kit. 

The woman told New Haven police that her attacker was a young, Hispanic man. Detectives inputted her descriptions into a computer program, which created a list of 70 potential suspects. The woman looked at photos of the men and said that 20-year-old Luis Figueroa was her assailant. She would later make a second photo identification.

Figueroa had grown up in a household that was often dysfunctional. He suffered from seizures, likely caused by a traumatic brain injury he received as a child. At the time of the Yale attack, Figueroa was considered an escaped felon, because he had walked away from a court-ordered drug-treatment program imposed as part of a plea deal to resolve charges of second-degree assault and third-degree larceny. A warrant was issued for his arrest on March 28, 1995.

On April 1, 1995, a second woman, a student at Southern Connecticut State University, reported she was raped. She was also treated at a hospital, and evidence was collected. She said she had met her assailant at a club, left with him voluntarily, but was later sexually assaulted. The woman never identified Figueroa, but her friends said he looked like the assailant. 

Police arrested Figueroa at his mother’s apartment on April 3, 1995. She would later say that her son told her he “would be coming right back.”

At the police station, Figueroa gave a statement and said he remembered having sex with a woman at around the same time frame that the Yale student reported the rape. Figueroa said the sex was consensual and described his partner as a Hispanic woman wearing a long skirt. He said they had met at a bar. By contrast, the Yale student was white and was wearing jeans. 

On November 6, 1995, state prosecutors offered Figueroa a plea deal of 15 years in prison on the March 11 sexual assault. He turned it down. On January 16, 1996, prosecutors also charged him with sexual assault of the second student, despite the fact that the woman had never identified Figueroa. 

Then, in May 1996, the State of Connecticut Forensic Lab reported the results of the DNA testing on the evidence collected from the second victim. In this case, unlike the first reported sexual assault, there was sufficient genetic material to test with the available technology. Figueroa was excluded as a contributor in the second attack. The charge was dismissed, and the New Haven State Attorney’s Office sweetened the plea deal on the Yale attack to 12 years.

On June 17, 1996, Figueroa accepted the offer and entered an Alford plea of guilty to first-degree sexual assault, first-degree robbery, and first-degree kidnapping. Alford pleas allow defendants to plead guilty without admitting guilt but acknowledging that the state has sufficient evidence to convict. In this instance, the state had a sympathetic witness who had picked Figueroa out of a photo lineup. In addition, Figueroa lacked a strong alibi. 

Figueroa appeared alone at his plea hearing, accompanied only by his attorney. The victim spoke to Judge Robert Devlin of New Haven Superior Court about her post-attack trauma and her bouts with suicidal thoughts. 

Devlin later said that Figueroa’s Alford plea notwithstanding, he had no doubt that the attack occurred the way the victim said it had. He told Figueroa that “I will … take you out of society for a long period of time for the best years of your life … and to make you a person that does not walk among decent law-abiding people. And you deserve that.”

Figueroa remained in prison until March 30, 2007, when he was released on five years of probation, which was enhanced because of his status as a convicted sex offender. He would later state that he suffered physical and mental abuse in prison and discouraged visitors because he was so depressed. He also said that he could have been released earlier if he had admitted his guilt, which he refused to do.

Between the time of Figueroa’s conviction and his parole, there had been significant advances in both the technology that analyzed DNA evidence and the databases that enabled this evidence to be stored and shared. 

In 2007, the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office received notification from the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, that a “hit” had come back on the DNA sample from the April 1, 1995 attack, linking the sample to a convicted felon named Julio Rodriguez. Prosecutors reopened the investigation and obtained a fresh sample from Rodriguez, which confirmed the results from the original sample. Rodriguez was arrested in April 2008. 

James Clark was the assistant state’s attorney responsible for prosecuting Rodriguez. Because the files in the April and March attacks were cross-referenced, Clark became interested in the earlier incident involving the Yale student. 

He would later write: “The cases were strikingly similar in the description of the perpetrator, the location of the crimes, the manner in which the crimes were carried out, and the language the perpetrator used.”

Clark learned of Figueroa’s Alford plea, and after making a chart and comparing details, he thought that an “innocent man may have been wrongly convicted.” He knew that there had been improvements in DNA analysis, and in June 2008, he asked the state forensic lab whether it could analyze the DNA sample from the victim in Figueroa’s case. The lab responded a month later that it could. On August 5, 2008, Clark asked the lab for an update. He did not get a response, and he didn’t follow up. “This failure on my part was unintentional, but clearly negligent,” he said.

Rodriguez pled guilty to the second sexual assault on December 2, 2008 and was sentenced on May 20, 2009. 

Between the time of Rodriguez’s plea and his sentencing, the forensic lab finished its analysis on the DNA from Figueroa’s case. On February 2, 2009, the lab reported that Figueroa was eliminated as a source of the male DNA profile on the vaginal swabbing and nasal-mucous sample. By contrast, the lab reported, Rodriquez could not be eliminated as the source.

The report was sent to the state’s attorney’s office and was apparently placed in the Rodriguez file, but Clark said he never saw it. By this time, he said, he was handling two other prosecutions and another attorney handled Rodriguez’s plea and sentencing.

After his release, Figueroa struggled with substance abuse and other problems. He was frequently homeless because he could not find landlords who would rent to him. He saw his photo on lists of sexual offenders and said people treated him “like a monster.” Figueroa was incarcerated for 185 days in 2011 for violating the strict conditions of his probation. He attended sex-offender treatment groups sessions, where he was scorned and subjected to punishment because he would not admit his guilt. 

Figueroa’s desperate situation, according to later court filings, pushed him into a stormy and at times violent relationship with a woman who also had substance-abuse problems. Their fights resulted in subsequent arrests for assault and breach of the peace that were prosecuted more harshly in part because of Figueroa’s sexual-assault conviction. One of these arrests, in 2013, also triggered probation violations resulting in another 173 days in jail.

In June 2014, Figueroa was in the New Haven County Jail, unable to make bail and awaiting trial on a domestic-violence charge. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the state forensic lab seeking any DNA evidence from his case. Stacey Miranda, an assistant state’s attorney, reviewed the files to respond to Figueroa and discovered the 2009 report that excluded him as a contributor to the genetic sample obtained from the victim in the March 11 attack.

Miranda would later say in an affidavit that “I immediately recognized the exculpatory nature of this report.” 

Working with Figueroa’s attorney, Miranda immediately moved to reduce Figueroa’s bond, allowing his release from jail. She then filed a motion to vacate Figueroa’s conviction and dismiss the charges related to the 1995 sexual assault. That motion was granted on August 1, 2014. She also filed subsequent motions to vacate the convictions tied to Figueroa’s probation violations. 

In an affidavit, Miranda said she took these actions because they were the right and ethical things to do. She also said that she spoke with the victim in this case, telling her that the DNA evidence had excluded Figueroa. Miranda said the woman didn’t wish to be involved with any further court proceedings. 

After his exoneration, Figueroa filed a claim in 2016 for state compensation for his wrongful conviction. During a hearing on his claim, he testified about his decision to plead guilty, using an Alford plea. 

“At the beginning I didn’t want to take that plea, because I was innocent," he said. "And [my attorney] told me if you take this to trial, you are going to be in there for a long time. I mean and I was thinking about ten years. And he said no, you’re going to be there for a long time, probably thirty or forty years…Then I asked him about the offer exactly what this means. He told me you take the knowledge about the crime that they got enough evidence to convict me, and you are going to plead guilty, but you are not taking responsibility of what happened. So you’ll be able to reopen the case and come back to court. So I say sure, I want to do that.” 

On December 24, 2020, Claims Commissioner Christy Scott awarded Figueroa just under $7 million. In her decision, she wrote, "Compensation cannot fully repair the damage done, but it may perhaps help to smooth the claimant's path back to health and peace.""

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=5912

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;