Robert Lee Stinson spent 23 of his 44 years in jail. Freed yesterday

[underpants]

Man Serving Life Sentence Freed 23 Years After Wrongful Murder Conviction
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486126,00.html

MILWAUKEE — A man sentenced to life in prison for killing a woman in 1984 had his conviction overturned and was released Friday after spending 23 years behind bars.

Robert Lee Stinson, 44, of Milwaukee, walked out of the New Lisbon Correctional Institution in street clothes and hugged his sister and members of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. A judge vacated the sentence after the Project argued that bite-mark analysis and DNA evidence that didn't match evidence from the crime scene, defense attorney Byron Lichstein said.

Stinson still faces a charge of first-degree homicide related to the woman's death, Lichstein said. A status hearing is set for July 27, according to online court records. Stinson was released on a personal recognizance bond, meaning he must return to court.

--Okay stop me if you've heard something like THIS before--

At trial, two forensic odontologists testified that Stinson's teeth were a match, even though Stinson was apparently missing a tooth in a place where the bite marks indicated a tooth, Lichstein said.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said in a statement Friday that Stinson's conviction was not wrongful, and that he was convicted based on "state-of-the-art scientific evidence available at the time of his trial."

Stinson's conviction was based almost exclusively on evidence suggesting that bite marks matched Stinson's teeth, Lichstein said. The lawyer said he did not know why special technology was necessary if the missing tooth could have indicated there was no match.

Steven Kohn, Stinson's trial attorney, said he didn't remember the details of the prosecution but recalled that the two state experts had discussed the case at a conference for forensic odontologists, leaving them unable to serve as defense witnesses. Kohn said he was forced to rely on an expert whose expertise was in dental records, not forensic odontology.

[Hepburn]

1. Q: How can you tell if a DA is lying?

A: His/her lips are moving.

Assholes...:grr:

[norepubsin08]

2. All cops and DA's are scum

the world would be a better place with out them!!!!

[merh]

3. that isn't true

lawlessness would not make a better world.

and there are good cops and good prosecutors. Like everything else, the bad ones get more coverage than the good ones.

[MADem]

5. Yep--everytime a vicious killer or rapist is put behind bars, you don't hear anyone striking up the

band. We only tend to make an issue of it when someone doesn't do the job they're supposed to do.

[meegbear]

4. The prosecution wasn't wrong ...

they weren't right, that's all. :grr:

[LisaL]

6. This bite mark "evidence" send more than one person

to prison, only to be later exonerated by DNA.

[TWiley]

7. Compare the bite marks to Ted Bundy.

Ted bit all of his victims.

[LisaL]

8. You would think that after reading this, someone should figure out

bite marks evidence isn't exactly reliable. But apparently not.