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Wednesday, July 30, 1997

Man cleared by DNA after spending 12 years in prison for rape

HOUSTON (AP) - A 35-year-old man who has been imprisoned 12 years for rape has been cleared by DNA tests on hair and blood samples he submitted after he was arrested in 1985.

Kevin Byrd voluntarily had given the samples to investigators, saying he was innocent.

District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr., Sheriff Tommy Thomas and District Judge Doug Shaver on Monday signed a letter to Gov. George W. Bush asking that he pardon Byrd, who has been held at the Garza Unit in Beeville.

"Based on the conclusion of the recent DNA testing, which excludes Kevin Byrd from being the semen donor in the 1985 aggravated sexual assault (case), I recommend that Gov. George Bush grant Mr. Byrd executive clemency in the form of a pardon from his conviction," the letter says.

Cellmark, a Maryland firm, concluded that Byrd could be excluded as the rapist, and a Houston police lab analysis of Cellmark's results did not reveal any flaws or errors in the conclusion.

The laboratory said Byrd could not be the rapist based on tests comparing the samples provided by Byrd with the semen taken from the victim.

Byrd may be Texas' only accused rapist with a life sentence ever to have been cleared by DNA testing.

A Department of Justice publication, "Convicted by Jury, Exonerated by Science," says only 28 other defendants nationwide had been cleared by DNA testing as of June 1996.

The rape victim, then 25 years old and pregnant, was devastated to learn that the man she identified as her attacker now may go free.

"She's still adamant today that it was him," Holmes said. "She thinks we're turning a guilty man loose. She's as sincere as she can be, but scientifically we have to say she was wrong."

The rape case was flawed from the outset because of blunders on the part of Houston police investigators, Holmes and Judge Shaver said.

The prosecution was handled by Gaynelle Griffin Jones, now U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

"It's the only case where, when it was over, I wrote a letter to the chief of police and complained about the investigation," Shaver said.

Byrd was arrested four months after the attack. The judge said he never felt that officers communicated well with the victim while questioning her. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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