DNA Exonerates Sunflower County Man of Rape … 15 Years Later

[Verbatim release from the Innocence Project] On Friday, January 4th, the Mississippi Supreme Court ordered the Sunflower County Circuit Court to determine whether Arthur Johnsons conviction fifteen years ago for rape and burglary should be set aside.  Recent DNA testing shows conclusively that Mr. Johnson is not the source of biological evidence collected immediately after the offense.  Should the conviction be set aside, Mr. JohnsonҒs exoneration would be the first in Mississippis history resulting from post-trial DNA testing.

Mr. Johnson had no violent prior criminal history when he was convicted at age 34 in a two-day trial in 1993 and sentenced to fifty-five years in prison.  He was convicted based upon the victims identification of him as her attacker. No physical evidence linked Mr. Johnson to the crime.  Several alibi witnesses testified that Mr. Johnson was at their house at the time of the crime. 

In August 2005, Mr. JohnsonҒs lawyer from Innocence Project New Orleans, Emily Maw, sought DNA testing from the Sunflower County Circuit Court.  With the agreement of the District Attorneys Office, Circuit Judge Ashley Hines ordered the evidence in the rape kit to be tested by ReliaGene Technologies in New Orleans.  After delays due to Hurricane Katrina, ReliaGene completed the testing late in 2007.  The testing completely excludes Mr. Johnson as the source of the seminal fluid collected from the underwear worn by the victim when she was raped.

Ms. Maw expects that the Sunflower County Circuit Court will soon hold a hearing to review the new DNA evidence in Mr. JohnsonҒs case.  This DNA testing proves that Arthur Johnson was telling the truth when he claimed, from the beginning, that he is innocent of this charge,Ӕ she said.  After the Court reviews the evidence, she expects that Mr. Johnsons conviction will be set aside and he will finally be released after fifteen years in prison for something he did not do.

This would make Mr. Johnson the first prisoner in MississippiҒs history to be fully exonerated on the basis of DNA testing performed after his trial.  (Former death row inmate Kennedy Brewer has been granted a new trial as a result of DNA testing that occurred years after his original trial, but the charges remain pending against him for now and his case is yet to be concluded.) Fridays Supreme Court order comes just as the new Innocence Clinic at the University of Mississippi law school begins operation.  The Innocence Project New Orleans, which represents Mr. Johnson, has successfully represented many prisoners with claims of innocence in Louisiana and Mississippi.  That organization played a hand in founding the new clinic at Ole Miss, where law students will work with attorneys on innocence cases in Mississippi.  The clinic was started with funding from many people, including author John Grisham and Columbus attorney Wilbur Colom.

Since 1989, DNA testing has been responsible for the post conviction exonerations of 209 individuals nationally. As in Mr. JohnsonҒs case, over 75% of those 209 DNA exonerations have involved mistaken eyewitness identification.1 DNA has shown us that mistaken eyewitness identification is in fact the leading cause of known wrongful convictions. Of the 166 DNA exonerations in sexual assault and rape cases since 1989, 133 (80%) have involved a mistaken eyewitness identification of the rapist.2 DNA testing has proven eyewitnesses to be mistaken even in cases, where the victim knew the assailant.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi state legislature will consider this year legislation that would allow prisoners like Mr. Johnson to request DNA testing that could prove their innocence. The legislature will also consider legislation that would require law enforcement authorities and courts to preserve, even after a person is convicted, biological evidence collected during the investigation of a crime.  These laws would provide an avenue of relief for others who, like Arthur Johnson, are wrongly convicted and imprisoned.

Mississippi remains one of only eight states in the country that has no statute providing access to DNA testing for prisoners with claims of innocence that could be confirmed through DNA analysis.  Mr. Johnsons case was brought through the courts by the volunteer efforts of the Innocence Project New Orleans, which also paid for the testing.  According to Tucker Carrington, director of the new Innocence Clinic at the University of Mississippi, legislative reform is an opportunity that would benefit all Mississippians, not just the innocently incarcerated.  It is also, he says, a moral obligation.  ғArthur Johnsons exoneration is yet another compelling example of the powerful tool that DNA evidence can provide Җ for people like Mr. Johnson, as well as for law enforcement who now have an unsolved case on their hands but also solid lead on the real perpetrator.  But this kind of evidence can only be helpful if its exists and for that Mississippi needs legislation to ensure that there will be clearly established procedures to provide for preservation and testing of this evidence for those whose claims of innocence could be proven.֔

Because there also is no law in Mississippi that requires authorities to preserve evidence after a person is convicted. Ms. Maw praised Sharon McFadden, the Circuit Clerk of Sunflower County, for carefully keeping the rape kit in evidence for years before it was tested. Without the efforts of Ms. McFadden and those in the Circuit ClerkӒs office, Mr. Johnson would never have had a chance to prove his innocence and would have served the remaining forty years of his prison sentence, likely dying in prison for a crime he did not commit, said Ms. Maw She said that until Mississippi passes a law requiring the preservation of evidence even after a conviction is final, many prisoners in Mr. JohnsonԒs shoes will have no hope of proving their innocence because the evidence is often lost or discarded after any initial appeal is concluded.