New DNA Evidence Exonerates Man After Sixteen Years In Prison
May 1, 2012
Monday, Robert “Rider” Dewey, a Colorado man wrongly convicted of the 1994 rape and murder 19-year-old Jacie Taylor, was exonerated by new DNA evidence and set free after spending more than 16 years in prison.
During a brief hearing, Mesa County District Court Judge Brian Flynn stated, “Mr. Dewey spent 6,219 days of his life incarcerated for a crime he did not do. This is a reminder to the entire system that it’s not perfect.” Flynn continued, emphasizing that, although there was no prosecutorial misconduct, Dewey had good defense attorneys, and an impartial jury had heard the case, “Despite all these things, the system didn’t work.”
The new DNA test ruled out Dewey as the source of blood discovered on a shirt with blood stains from Taylor. To date, post-conviction DNA tests have exonerated approximately two hundred ninety inmates since 1989.
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