DNA overturns conviction in Washington

Ted Bradford was convicted in 1996 of breaking into a woman’s house in Yakima, Washington, and raping her. He has completed his nine-year sentence and has been released, but is still working with the Innocence Project Northwest at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle to prove his innocence.

In the 1995 crime, the perpetrator wore a nylon stocking over his head and also placed a mask on the victim’s face with sticky tape. DNA testing has now shown the profile of another man on the mask and the tape, and a Washington appeals court yesterday agreed with a lower court that Bradford deserves a new trial. Bradford also allegedly confessed to the crime after a lengthy police interrogation in 1995, and prosecutors have said they intend to retry him in order to ensure that he continues to register as a sex offender.

"We're just delighted that both the trial court and court of appeals found the weight of the scientific evidence would probably result in a different verdict," said Jackie McMurtrie, director of the Innocence Project Northwest, which represented Bradford. "Mr. Bradford is innocent."

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. (Seattle Times, 08/15/07)

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