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Robert Dewey
Update: A man sentenced to life in prison for the rape and killing of a Colorado woman was freed on Monday based on advanced DNA testing that exonerated him.
Robert "Rider" Dewey, 51, who had been imprisoned since his 1996 conviction, appeared before a Colorado judge on Monday in Grand Junction for a post-conviction hearing in his case. He was ordered released shortly after that hearing.
"I kind of want to kick back, ride my bike and be with my family," Dewey said after he was freed. "I always knew of my innocence and proclaimed my innocence."
Dewey was convicted and sentenced to life without parole for the rape and murder of Jacie Taylor, 19, in the western Colorado town of Palisade. Taylor's partially clothed body was found in her bathtub in June 1994. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with a dog leash.
"I don't believe the prosecution established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," she said. "The jury wanted to convict somebody."
Stephen Laiche, one of two attorneys who defended Dewey at his trial in 1996, praised Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger's office, The Daily Sentinel reported.
"They could have fought us on this thing, but they realized they had an innocent man," he told the newspaper. "It makes me wonder what we could have done differently."
Advanced techniques
Dewey's lawyers submitted his case to the Colorado Justice Review Project, a program established in 2009 with a $1.2 million federal government grant that allows convicted felons to apply for DNA testing in their cases.
The program is administered by the office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who lauded it as a way for advanced DNA techniques to affirm convictions or clear the innocent.
Questions arose during his trial about whether blood on his shirt belonged to the victim, according to local news accounts. A defense expert disputed the prosecution's contention that the blood matched Taylor's, the reports said.
The semen found on the victim did not match Dewey at the time of his conviction, but no other suspect was ever arrested for the crimes.
'Still a killer out there'
Under Colorado law, a first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Dewey consistently maintained his innocence.
At Dewey's original sentencing, then-Mesa County District Judge Charles Buss was quoted in local media as telling the defendant that, "I am happy to impose it (a life sentence) on you."
Dewey replied: "There's still a killer out there."
Post-conviction DNA testing has exonerated nearly 290 people in the United States since 1989, according to the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Here we are again celebrating the release after HOW MANY YEARS of a person that was wrongfully convicted...still called a killer by the headlines! The truth was found using a $30.00 test and more money to break down those barriers to the truth then any of us can count! If the truth ever does become more important than egos and careers, and justice is truly the object, the MANY people that are in prison on bogus charges should be given the chance to prove their innocence. None of us can be secure or safe knowing that at any time, anyone of us can be accused and jailed unless we have massive checkbooks to defend ourselves. Justice should not be only for those that can pay a hefty price! FREEPAULCORTEZ.ORG
I don't understand how someone can be convicted of rape when the semen at the scene of the crime was not the person that was convicted.
It's called bad investigating and bad forensics and apparently not a very bright jury. The cops didn't do their job. They were apparently just looking for any person to arrest and convict and this guy, for some reason, filled the bill. If I were him, I'd try and pay the arresting detective a visit to see if said detective has the integrity to apologize to him for sending him to prison and wasting all those years of his life. I know I would.
I wonder if they are going to re-open this case and start working it again as a cold case? This time try looking for the right guy! This guy will have a grand lawsuit against the state of Colorado when all is said and done for false arrest and imprisonment. What kind of evidence could have led to a guilty verdict in the first place???? I am glad there is DNA out there to exonerate innocent people and keep cops on their toes and DAs that convict innocent people. At least this DA admitted they made a mistake and didn't fight it. Others, along with some Judges, refuse to admit they made a mistake along with the detectives that originally arrested the person, even though the DNA proves beyond a doubt a mistake was made and an innocent person went to prison. They make a laughing stock out of the justice system because they won't admit they didn't do their job right and don't have the integrity to admit they convicted the wrong person. I wish this person the best of luck in his future and if I were him, I'd move out of the state of CO before they dream up something else to make themselves look good.
That sad truth isn't how many people are found innocent after years in prison, it is the untold number that died in prison for a crime they didn't commit just because the DNA technology wasn't there. Our justice system has denigrated down to a vengeance system. A put SOMEBODY in prison, or to death, so the populace can feel like they are safe and the system is working.
Really, folks, haven't you seen "Law and Order"? From it we get such gems as "We've got enough to go to trial" and "Juries will convict with this". Nothing that flat out says "This guy is guilty of a crime", rather, we get penny-ante crap that says that the district attorney can make it stick.
Our justice system needs to get over that mentality. Justice isn't about whether or not you can get a conviction, it's about whether or not a person has committed a crime. The items states in this article to have given the appearance of innocence are the defacto "not guilty" markers that those with common sense immediately associate with such.
The judge and jury don't need a fine or penalty. The district attorney that forced the case into trial, then pursued it into a conviction should be imprisoned for defrauding the jury and misleading the judge, but only before being disbarred.