Albert Johnson

The Crime

At about 11 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1992, a young white woman, identified as S.G., was talking on a payphone in San Pablo, California, when a Black man stopped his white car to ask directions. As she approached the car, she saw a metal object through the window, and — believing it was a gun — felt she had no choice when the driver insisted she get in the vehicle. The man drove her to a secluded intersection where he raped her. 

The Investigation

Two hours later, 30-year-old Albert Johnson, an engaged man and father, was stopped for a speeding violation. He was driving a white Fiat that resembled the description that S.G. gave of her attacker’s vehicle. When the officer saw a chrome bar in the car, they believed it to be the metal object S.G. had described.

Before being taken to the hospital, S.G. was driven to the intersection where Mr. Johnson had been stopped. The victim was instructed that the man she would see may or may not be her assailant. When she arrived, she told the officer that she recognized the car and that Mr. Johnson was the rapist. Mr. Johnson was then arrested.

Subsequently, the lead detective in the case assembled a photographic lineup with Mr. Johnson’s picture and showed it to a young woman who had been attacked while she was jogging at a nearby high school track on Dec. 8, 1991. The victim, identified as J.V., reported that a man had approached her and demanded, at gunpoint, that she stop running, before he raped her. Afterward, he stole her watch and gold chain.

The detective told J.V. that the perpetrator was in the lineup and encouraged her to make a selection. J.V. had described her attacker as being dark-skinned, clean-shaven, and between 6 feet 2 inches and 6 feet 4 inches tall. When she noted that Mr. Johnson had lighter skin than her attacker, the detective explained that Mr. Johnson had been in prison working out and had little exposure to sun. Ultimately, she identified Mr. Johnson as the assailant and the detective confirmed for her that he was the suspect. She later claimed she was pressured into making this identification. 

Mr. Johnson, who had a mustache and was 5 feet 10 inches tall, was charged with sexually assaulting both women and kidnapping S.G. He maintained he was innocent in both cases.

The Trials

Mr. Johnson went to separate trials for each case in Contra Costa County Superior Court. He was convicted of the attack on S.G. on Nov. 13, 1992, based on her identification of him as her attacker. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

On Jan. 28, 1993, despite multiple witnesses testifying that Mr. Johnson was elsewhere at the time of the attack on J.V., he was convicted on multiple counts of sexual assault based on her identification. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison, to be served consecutively to the 15 year sentence for a combined sentence of 39 years.

His convictions were affirmed on appeal.

The Exoneration

Mr. Johnson studied law while incarcerated and sought DNA testing for the two rape cases. Unfortunately, his lawyer on the case involving S.G., whom he later accused of negligence for failing to pursue DNA testing or consult eyewitness identification experts at the time of the trial, never filed a petition to preserve the rape kit, so it was destroyed. 

Mr. Johnson had a different defense attorney in the case involving J.V. That attorney had requested that the rape kit from J.V. be preserved. 

On Oct. 3, 2002, after DNA test results excluded Mr. Johnson as the attacker of J.V., his convictions in that case were vacated and the charges were dismissed. On Oct. 4, 2002, he was released on parole in the case involving S.G.