"Barton Creek Rapist" Set Free at Last! (he was innocent!)
DNA testing proved that Carlos Lavernia, serving a 99-year sentence for being the notorious Barton Creek Rapist, was telling the truth when he repeatedly insisted that he was innocent. This guy went through hell, and almost didn't survive the 16 years he spent in prison before DNA vindicated him. The "eye witness" who identified Lavernia, and picked him out of a line-up, feels pretty damn bad about the mistake. Jurors didn't like him at all, because during the trial he was always so damn ANGRY. He had good reason to be angry -- he was accused of a horrid crime of which he was 100% innocent.
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Christopher Ochoa and Richard Danziger were also released after wrongfully serving 12 years for the 1988 rape and murder of Nancy DePriest. They were serving life sentences.
"In both of those cases, DNA testing showed that the wrong people got convicted," said Bryan Case, assistant district attorney. "It was realizing we needed to do those requests which made us think that there are other cases out there."
Case said the district attorney's office reviewed a list of jury trials from the past 25 years and found people convicted of murder, sexual assault or kidnapping involving murder or sexual assault. They developed a list of criteria the cases must meet to qualify for a DNA test.
"There has to be one of those offenses present and a continuing claim of innocence," he said. "There must also be biological evidence, and there has to be a new improvement in DNA testing from the time the conviction occurred."
