[Vision2020] One More "Killer" Released Because of DNA

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

Fortunately, most DNA exonerations are happening with prisoners who are still alive.  The real injustice, however, is those, now over 100, who were executed before the tests could be done.

The state should not be in the business of premeditated murder, especially if it cannot be sure of that its victims are guilty.

Nick Gier

January 24, 2007, NY Times
With DNA From Exhumed Body, Man Finally Wins Freedom
By FERNANDA SANTOS

AUBURN, N.Y., Jan. 23 — Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison on a murder conviction and uncovered evidence while there that linked another man to the crime, was released from prison on Tuesday after DNA tests on the other man’s exhumed body matched saliva on a nightshirt at the crime scene.

After 15 years behind bars, Mr. Brown stepped out of court into a light snowfall and gently pushed his way through a cluster of relatives who vied for his attention. The reception was fine, he said, but he is too sick with liver disease to stand on his feet for long.

“Changes have got to be made, man,” Mr. Brown said later at a lawyer’s office across the street, answering questions in a monotone as he rested awkwardly in a black swivel chair. “They say the wheels of justice move slowly, but you know what? The wheels of justice are flat.”

Mr. Brown, 46, is the eighth person in New York State exonerated through DNA evidence in the past 13 months, more than in any other state during the same period.

The DNA tests that freed him confirmed the results of his own jailhouse investigation, in which he discovered documents that incriminated Barry Bench, a volunteer firefighter, in the murder of Sabina Kulakowski, 49, a social worker who had lived with Mr. Bench’s brother until months before her death. Earlier DNA tests conducted by Mr. Brown’s lawyers linked Mr. Bench’s daughter, Katherine Eckstadt, to the genetic code lifted from the saliva on Ms. Kulakowski’s nightshirt.