MAN CONVICTED OF RAPE PARTLY BASED ON VITIMS DREAM RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER 28 YEARS

MAN CONVICTED OF RAPE PARTLY BASED ON VITIMS DREAM RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER 28 YEARS

പീഡിപ്പിച്ചുവെന്നത് സ്ത്രീ കണ്ട സ്വപ്നം; 28 വര്‍ഷം ജയില്‍ശിക്ഷ അനുഭവിച്ചയാളെ കുറ്റവിമുക്തനാക്കി

A Colorado man who was convicted of rape partly based on the victim’s dream has been released from prison after 28 years and four months.“He is very happy to be back in the free world and he is taking it day by day,” Clarence Moses-EL’s defense attorney Gail Johnson tells PEOPLE. On his first night of freedom, Johnson says Moses-EL, 60, celebrated with family members and his legal team and ate a shrimp pizza and banana cream pie.Moses-EL was granted a new trial on Dec. 14 after serving more than half of his 48-year sentence for the 1987 brutal rape of his neighbor. In an order, Denver District Court Judge Kandace C. Gerdes said she vacated Mosel-EL’s conviction on the basis of newly discovered evidence and previously admitted evidence that was “sufficient on salient points to allow ajury to probably return a verdict of acquittal in favor of the Defendant.”The Denver district attorney’s office said they haven’t decided if they will retry the case.“We don’t know what the state of the evidence will be now after 28 years,” Lynn Kimbrough, a DA spokesperson tells PEOPLE. “It is a large task to undertake.”Adding: “In overturning the conviction last week some people think it is a declaration of his innocence. The court has only granted him a new trial.”

In 1987, the victim told police that she had been drinking with neighbors before she returned home and was brutally raped twice. When the police initially asked her who attacked her, she named three men, “LC, Earl, Darnell,” according to the judge’s order. However, one and a half days later, she pointed her finger at Moses-EL and told police his face came to her in a dream. He was convicted in 1988 of sexual assault, assault and burglary and sentenced to 48 years in prison.Over the years, he maintained his innocence and his efforts to appeal his conviction were unsuccessful. However, in the ’90s, he won a legal bid for DNA testing on the evidence to clear his name, but police mistakenly destroyed it.“That is why our client pursued DNA testing all those many years ago because he knew he was innocent, he believed DNA would set him free,” says Johnson.

His big break came in 2012 when one of the men the victim initially identified as her attacker, LC Jackson, wrote him a letter, admitting he had sex with her that night.“I really don’t know what to say to you,” he wrote. “But let’s start by bringing what was done in the dark into the light. I have a lot on my heart. I don’t know who is working on this. But have them come up and see me. It’s time. I will be waiting.”Jackson, who is serving time for two convictions of sexual assault, was interviewed by defense attorneys and admitted that on the night of the attack, he entered the victim’s apartment, had sex with her, became angry and physically assaulted her.“He prayed about the issue quite a bit and he believes he needed to repent his sins and tell the truth about what had happened,” says Johnson about Jackson’s confession. “He is in ill health and he does not believe he will live a long time and I think he was at that moment in his life where he wanted to come clean with God.”The Denver district attorney’s office said Jackson told them a different story.

“In his statement to the district attorney’s investigator, he admitted he had lied and had made the confession up,” says Kimbrough. “LC claimed that he had consensual sex with the victim but his new details about having sex with her were implausible and not consistent with the brutal beating that resulted in the serious injuries she suffered.”Johnson says that Jackson’s confession was not the only evidence that made the judge overturn his conviction. Johnson said that Jackson’s blood type also matched the blood type of the perpetrator.“By contrast, Mr. Moses-EL’s blood type is inconsistent with the evidence from the attack,” she says.Moses-EL faces four felony counts, including first-degree sex assault and second-degree assault. A motions hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25.“He is not making any grand plans right now,” says Johnson about Moses-EL. “He is enjoying being with his family, wife, his son and grandkids, and doing simple things and appreciating the world around him.”

ഡെന്‍വര്‍ (യുഎസ്): ക്ലാരന്‍സ് മോസസ് എന്നയാള്‍ പീഡനക്കേസില്‍ 28 വര്‍ഷം ജയിലില്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞത് ഒരു സ്വപ്നം കാരണമാണ്. 1988 ലാണ് പീഡനക്കേസ് പ്രതിയായി ഇയാള്‍ ജയിലിലായത്. അയല്‍ക്കാരിയായ യുവതിയെ ശാരീരികമായി പീഡിപ്പിക്കുകയും മര്‍ദിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തുവെന്നായിരുന്നു ക്ലാരന്‍സിനെതിരായ കേസ്. സ്ത്രീയെ പീഡിപ്പിച്ചതിന് ക്ലാരന്‍സ് അടക്കം മൂന്നുപേര്‍ക്ക് 48 വര്‍ഷത്തെ തടവുശിക്ഷയാണു വിധിച്ചത്.

എന്നാല്‍, അടുത്തിടെ സഹതടവുകാരിലൊരാള്‍ ക്ലാരന്‍സ് കേസില്‍ ഉള്‍പ്പെട്ടിട്ടില്ലെന്നു മൊഴി നല്‍കിയതോടെ പുനഃവിചാരണ നടത്തി. അപ്പോഴാണ് ക്ലാരന്‍സ് പീഡിപ്പിച്ചതായി താന്‍ സ്വപ്നം കണ്ടതാണെന്നു സ്ത്രീ വെളിപ്പെടുത്തിയത്. തുടര്‍ന്ന് ക്ലാരന്‍സിനെ 28 വര്‍ഷത്തിനു ശേഷം കുറ്റവിമുക്തനാക്കി. 32-ാം വയസ്സില്‍ ശിക്ഷിക്കപ്പെട്ട ക്ലാരന്‍സിന് ഇപ്പോള്‍ 60 വയസ്സായി.

Prof. John Kurakar