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Black man imprisoned 25 years freed by dna { April 23 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/23/national/main2718824.shtml http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/23/national/main2718824.shtml DNA Tests Exonerate Illinois Man Jerry Miller Served 25 Years In Jail For Rape; Group Says It's 200th Such Case In United States CHICAGO, April 23, 2007 (CBS/AP) A man who spent 25 years in prison for rape was exonerated Monday as a judge threw out his convictions because DNA evidence showed he couldn't have committed the attack. An advocacy group said it was the 200th such case. Jerry Miller smiled and the courtroom erupted into cheers after Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane G. Cannon read the ruling that cleared him of all charges. Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery even though he testified he was at home watching television at the time of the 1981 attack. He was paroled in March 2006 and now works two jobs and lives with a family member in a Chicago suburb. "I will get on with my life, start a life, have a life," Miller said at a news conference after the hearing. "I'm just thankful for this day." The Innocence Project, a New York-based group, had persuaded prosecutors last year to conduct DNA tests on a semen sample taken from the rape victim's clothes. Those results excluded Miller as the attacker. The case is the 200th in the United States in which a person was convicted and later exonerated based on DNA evidence, the group says. The first exonerations based on DNA testing were in 1989, and in all, the 200 defendants served about 2,475 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit, according to the group's Web site. Calvin Johnson, who spent 17 years in prison after being falsely convicted of rape, also was exonerated recently thanks to the work of the Innocence Project, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. "It could happen to anybody," Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, told Pitts. "It has happened to people that you would never expect to have been convicted of a crime that they didn't commit." Miller was arrested in the attack on a 44-year-old woman at a Chicago parking garage in September 1981. The attacker raped her and put her in the trunk of her car, but he ran away when two attendants approached him as he tried to leave the garage. The attendants helped authorities make a sketch and later picked Miller out of a lineup. Now that he is exonerated, Miller no longer has to register as a sex offender. Mark Ertler, deputy supervisor of the Cook County state's attorney's office DNA review unit, told the Chicago Tribune that the case was "a good example of what the DNA unit was intended to do." © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc.

confederate-law deathpenalty force-confession planting-guns rockefeller-law tulia-texas 1 in 99 americans in jail { January 2008 } 25percent of worlds prisoners 3 days in nyc jails { November 23 2002 } Black man imprisoned 25 years freed by dna { April 23 2007 } Black man innocent of murder freed after 27 years { April 29 2008 } Black prison rate reach peak { April 7 2003 } British police new supergun for rioters { October 9 2005 } California highest percapita jail population outside china { November 18 2003 } Correctional population hits record 7m { July 26 2004 } Correctional services corporation builds texas detention center Corrections 7m ap Corrections 7m reuters Crime rose 2001 Dna clears florida man of 1981 rape and robbery { January 14 2006 } Dna exoneration { August 26 2002 } Dna tests free man in prison 25 years Drug laws dont reduce drug crime Fbi method sent innocent hundreds to prison { November 18 2007 } Federal prisons packed Halliburton contracted to build immigration jails Highest adult imprisonment world { August 18 2003 } Inmates not violent Innocent british prisoner charged with living expenses La riots one year later { April 29 2002 } Lawmakers seek to end business boom behind bars { February 23 2005 } Man cleared by dna after 17 years Microsoft cheap labor in prisons { March 19 2001 } Millions behind bars One in 37 done time One of every 75 men in prison { May 27 2004 } Overcrowded prisoners to take sleep shifts Poor lawyers in death sentence { June 26 2003 } Prison labor grows { March 19 2000 } Prisoner claims legal injection cruel and unusual { January 23 2006 } Prisoners grew by 900 inmates a week during 2004 { June 30 2003 } Prisons add 1000 inmates each week { May 21 2006 } Prisons colleges Racial segregation continues in california prisons Record 7 million adults in prison system { October 2006 } Record high Sentencing in doubt after supreme court decision { June 25 2004 } Supreme court gives sentencing power to juries { June 26 2004 } Supreme court transforms sentence guidelines { January 13 2005 } Uk prison population hits new record Worlds highest incarceration rate { August 18 2003 } Young inmates caged drugged state study finds { January 28 2004 } Files Listed: 46

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