| ||
| ||
| ||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Man exonerated by DNA free after serving 19 yearsCharges dropped in all three rape cases
BOSTON (AP) -- A man who spent 19 years in prison after three rape victims identified him as their attacker was freed Thursday, cleared by new DNA evidence on evidence dug up by a law student working on his case. "It's a big change," Dennis Maher said at the Boston office of his attorneys. "I expected to die in prison and now I'm out." After prosecutors dropped charges against him before a packed courtroom, Maher also said he had a message for the women: "What happened to you really happened, and I hold no grudges against you." Maher, a 42-year-old former Army paratrooper and mechanic, said he blamed Lowell police and his former attorney, now deceased, but was too overwhelmed by his newfound freedom to feel any anger about his years of incarceration. After his conviction in 1983, Maher told the court his conviction was a travesty. He continued to proclaim his innocence as he spent the next two decades in prison. His big break came in 2001, when the law student discovered two boxes of evidence, including the clothing of one of the victims, in the basement of the Cambridge courthouse. Prosecutors agreed to have the clothing sent to California for DNA testing, and the results showed that Maher did not commit the rape. A slide from the rape kit of a second victim was immediately sent for testing, and those results also cleared Maher as the attacker. On Thursday, prosecutors agreed to drop charges in all three cases against him, prompting applause from Maher's family and friends, who packed the courtroom. Although the third case was an attempted rape and there was no DNA evidence, prosecutors said they no longer believe Maher was the assailant. District Attorney Martha Coakley said there was no indication the case was marred by sloppy police work. All three women identified Maher as their attacker, and their description of clothing and a military knife matched items found in Maher's car. "Obviously, we have profound regrets about this," Coakley said. "There is not much you can say to someone who has unfortunately been at the wrong end of an imperfect system." Maher was represented by the Innocence Project, which provides legal assistance to inmates where DNA testing of blood, sperm, saliva, hair or skin could establish proof of innocence. His current attorney, Aliza Kaplan, deputy director of the Innocence Project, said about 80 percent of the 126 convictions reversed by the Innocence Project have involved mistaken eyewitness identifications. Difficult therapy sessionsMaher said his time at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater was difficult in part because he had to go to group therapy sessions and listen to child molesters and rapists talk about what they did to their victims. Kaplan said Maher is considering a civil lawsuit, though Maher said money won't give him back nearly two decades of his life. "I should be married with children. You can't make up for that," he said. "Compensation will go part of the way, but you can never make up for what I lost." Maher said he'd like to find a job as a mechanic, his last job in the Army, and was trying to understand some of the things he missed while in prison. He used a cellular telephone for the first time Thursday. Maher also thanked his lawyers and his parents for standing behind him. "There are a lot of other people who are in the same circumstances and I hope they get the help they need," he said. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
