Sat, Jul 08, 2006 page7

• Wrongfully convicted man freed after cleared by DNA

  BITTERSWEET A man imprisoned for 20 years for a rape he did not commit walked free on Thursday, saying that justice had been denied for both him and the rape victim

  • AP
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  His freedom secured more than two decades after he was imprisoned for a rape he did not commit, Alan Newton described his plans: a home-cooked meal, a visit to the grave of his mother, who died about 10 years ago.

  But Newton also offered his sympathy to the woman whose rape led to his wrongful conviction and time in prison until he was freed Thursday after being cleared by DNA evidence.

  "My unjust conviction denied both of us justice," he said outside the courtroom at Bronx Criminal Court, where a judge earlier signed the order declaring him a free man. "It opens up old wounds and denies her closure."

  The nonprofit Innocence Project and prosecutors from the Bronx district attorney's office had asked for Newton's 1985 conviction to be vacated based on recent testing on a rape kit used for the woman after the incident.

  Newton, now 44, was convicted of raping the woman in an abandoned Bronx building in June 1984. He was sentenced in 1985 to up to 40 years in prison.

  In 1994 he filed a motion asking that new DNA testing be conducted, but the request was denied because the evidence was unavailable, the Innocence Project and prosecutors wrote in papers filed to the court.

  A similar request was granted four years later, but testing of the victim's clothing "failed to yield the presence of male DNA," the papers said.

  At the request of the Innocence Project, the district attorney's office last year asked the New York Police Department's property clerk division to search for the rape kit at an evidence warehouse in Queens.

  Despite what Innocence Project lawyers and prosecutors said were earlier claims that it was lost or had been destroyed, officials found the kit, which was tested for DNA by two labs earlier this year. The tests cleared Newton.

  "This is indicative of a larger problem that we're having in New York City, finding evidence," said attorney Vanessa Potkin, who, along with Barry Scheck, a one-time member of O.J. Simpson's legal team and founder of the Innocence Project, led Newton's case. "Lo and behold, when somebody actually got up and went ... exactly where that evidence was supposed to be, they found it."

  Potkin praised the district attorney's office for its help in pursuing evidence that led to Newton's release.

  Newton said he wants to complete his bachelor's degree and figure out career options. He was a bank teller at the time of his arrest.

  He also indicated he would pursue legal action against the police department for its handling of the case.

  "An unjust conviction, the amount of time I served, should serve as an example," Newton said.

  Police spokesman Paul Browne said the paperwork originally filed seeking DNA evidence in this case may have been destroyed in a fire, slowing efforts to retrieve the evidence. The department was eventually able to locate the rape kit after the Bronx district attorney's office produced a copy of the original voucher.

  Browne said the department had taken additional steps to safeguard DNA evidence in recent years.

  Outside the courtroom, Newton wept when asked what his release would have meant to his mother, whom family members said always believed he was innocent.

  "I don't know how to describe it," he said through tears.
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