Timothy Durham

The Crime

Shortly after noon on May 31, 1991, a man knocked on the door of a house on South Owasso Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, asking if there was any yard work that needed to be done. When an 11-year-old girl answered the door and said no one else was home, the man pushed inside and sexually assaulted her. 

The girl was taken to a hospital, where a rape kit was taken. She described her attacker as having red hair and being 5 feet 4 inches tall. 

On Nov. 8, 1991, 28-year-old Timothy Durham, who had red hair, was arrested after he was implicated in a call to Crime Stoppers. On Nov. 21, Mr. Durham was charged with first-degree rape, rape by instrumentation, forcible sodomy, lewd molestation, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, and attempted robbery.

The Trial

Mr. Durham went to trial in Tulsa County District Court in March 1993. The victim identified him as her attacker. 

Carol English Cox, a Tulsa Police Crime Laboratory analyst, testified that she had compared hairs from the crime scene to that of Mr. Durham. In her examination, Ms. Cox found both sets of hair to be “very, very similar,” as she had not seen “any pubic hairs as light as these before.” According to Ms. Cox, both sets of hair shared similar colors, including one she had seen in “less than five percent” of hair samples, as well as an unusual straightening trait that she had only seen once before. 

Dr. Robert Giles, the scientific director of the GeneScreen laboratory in Dallas, Texas, testified that he had conducted DNA testing on the swimsuit the victim had worn at the time of the attack. During his analysis of the semen, he had found a genetic marker that matched one of Mr. Durham’s. While at least 1 in 10 men had these genetic markers, it was a small enough group that he could include Mr. Durham in the suspect pool. 

The defense called 11 witnesses who testified that at the time of the crime, Mr. Durham had been with his father at a three-day skeet shooting competition in Dallas, Texas. Evidence was presented that Mr. Durham had made and signed for purchases while he was there. A handwriting expert confirmed that the signatures were Mr. Durham’s. 

The prosecution contended that Mr. Durham had enough time to rape the victim and then drive 260 miles to Dallas to attend the competition. 

The jury began deliberating on March 12. At about 12:30 a.m. on March 13, the jury convicted Mr. Durham on all charges. Two hours later, the jury recommended consecutive prison terms totaling 3,220 years. 

In February 1996, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions but reduced his sentence to 3,120 years. 

The Exoneration

Later that year, Mr. Durham wrote to the Innocence Project and asked for help in obtaining DNA testing. The evidence was sent to Forensic Science Associates, the laboratory of Dr. Edward Blake.

In August 1996, Dr. Blake reported that Mr. Durham was not the source of the semen found on the victim’s swimsuit. GeneScreen’s DNA test result had been a false match caused by the laboratory’s failure to completely separate the male DNA from the female DNA during extraction of the stain.

In November 1996, Innocence Project attorney Barry Scheck and local counsel Richard and Sharisse O’Carroll filed a motion seeking a new trial, on the grounds that Mr. Durham had been excluded by four of the five genetic markers tested. “An exclusion by any one of these markers would be sufficient to demonstrate that Mr. Durham was not the source” of the biological evidence, the motion said. 

The motion also asserted that a convicted rapist named Jess Garrison was likely the true perpetrator. In December 1991, after Mr. Durham was charged in the case, Mr. Garrison had taken his own life. 

On Jan. 2, 1997, Mr. Durham’s convictions were vacated and he was granted a new trial. He was released pending a retrial. 

On Dec. 9, 1997, at the request of Tulsa County District Attorney Bill LaFortune, Judge Bill Beasley dismissed the case. 

Mr. Durham was later awarded $50,000 in compensation from the state of Oklahoma.