Buffalo woman seeks a new trial on DNA evidence

A New York judge will decide next week whether a Buffalo woman deserves a new trial in the 1993 murder of her 13-year-old daughter. Lynn DeJac has been in prison for 14 years for a murder she says she didn’t commit, and new DNA tests have revealed that skin cells on her daughter’s body and bloodat the crime scene match the profile of DeJac’s boyfriend at the time. DeJac’s attorneys argued in court on Tuesday that she would not have been convicted if the jury in her first trial had heard about the DNA evidence. Detectives have said the timeline of the crime points to DeJac’s innocence.

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. (New York Newsday, 11/20/07)

A column in Wednesday’s Buffalo News says DNA tests in DeJac’s case should guarantee a retrial, and that Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark “refuses to acknowledge the obvious.”

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. (Buffalo News, 11/21/07)

Last week, Buffalo Police Department detectives on the city’s Cold Case Squad told reporters that they believe DeJac was innocent and deserved a new trial.

“In our opinion, after investigating this case and looking at all the available evidence, Lynn DeJac could not have killed her daughter,” Detective Dennis Delano said.

“Any person on the street could read the facts available to us and tell that Lynn DeJac could not possibly have killed her daughter,” Delano added. “In my mind, she’s 100 percent innocent.”

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. (Buffalo News, 11/17/07)

Delano and other Cold Case Squad detectives were involved in solving the city’s notorious “Bike Path Rapist” case earlier this year. During their investigation of those crimes, DNA tests proved that Anthony Capozzi had been in prison for two 1986 rapes he didn’t commit.

Capozzi was exonerated and released in April

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