DNA test clears man
jailed for 18 years
39-year-old North
Carolinian was wrongly convicted of child rape
By AP from msnbc.com
on the Web, August 29, 2007he Associated Press
GOLDSBORO, N.C. Aug. 28 -- A
man who remained in prison for 18 years after being wrongly convicted of child
rape was released Tuesday after new DNA testing cleared him of the crime.
Dwayne Allen Dail, now 39, hugged his attorney as Wayne County Superior Court
Judge Jack Hooks Jr. set aside his conviction.
District Attorney Branny Vickory had asked the judge to dismiss the original
charges against Dail because of the new test results. The tests showed
that DNA found on the 12-year-old victim’s nightgown matched that of another man
already in prison. The results also excluded Dail as the rapist.
“I’m a blessed man,” Dail said, hugging his mother as other crying family
members stood nearby. He said he never thought the conviction would be set
aside.
The girl was raped in 1987 by an intruder who entered an apartment window, and
the victim later identified Dail as the attacker. Hair found at the scene
was also found to be “microscopically consistent” with his.
The nonprofit North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission began looking into
Dail’s case in 2001 and pushed for the new DNA testing. Christine Mumma,
Dail’s attorney and director of the commission, said Dail contacted senators,
governors and her organization “hoping that someone would listen to his claim of
innocence.”
Clerk kept evidence from all cases
Although police, court officials and others had long said all the evidence —
including a rape kit, bed sheets and a nightgown — had been destroyed, the
center decided to ask one more time.
Mumma said a court clerk told her that one police officer, now deceased, kept
evidence from all his cases.
She discovered that a box with the nightgown and other evidence the officer kept
in his office had been checked in as evidence in the previous two years.
On Monday, the State Bureau of Investigation notified Vickory and Mumma that the
test of semen recovered from the victim’s nightgown did not match Dail’s DNA.
She and Vickory said prosecutors followed existing law at the time of Dail’s
trial. The nightgown was not entered as evidence in 1989 because the
victim’s underwear and other personal items were considered sufficient, she
said.
Mumma said she will ask Gov. Mike Easley for a pardon and compensation from the
state. Dail could be entitled to $20,000 for each year of wrongful
incarceration, she said.
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