MASSACHUSETTS ACTUALLY GETS THE RIGHT GUY AT LAST!

After 21 years in jail for an innocent man -- again a (coached?) eyewiness conviction

A Massachusetts prison inmate once known as California's "Want-Ad Rapist" has been charged with a 1981 sexual assault that another man wrongfully served 21 years in prison for. Joel Bill Caulk, 58, was indicted Tuesday in North Carolina on charges of rape, sexual offense and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Caulk is currently serving time for rape and robbery at the maximum-security Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley, Mass., and has also been convicted of rape and other violent crimes in Maine, New Hampshire and California. His criminal record dates to 1970 when he was convicted of three sexual assaults in San Diego. In 1987, he received a life sentence in Maine for the 1981 shooting death of a real estate agent. Caulk was known in California as the "want-ad rapist" for his manner of choosing victims through newspaper ads listing household items for sale.

The announcement of his indictment came on the same day North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley pardoned Leo Waters, who was cleared of the crime by a DNA test in 2003. Waters was convicted of the March 31, 1981, attack on a Jacksonville woman who was bound and raped by a man answering her classified ad to sell a water bed. Charges against Waters were dismissed more than a year ago, after he served 21 years in prison. "Two conclusive DNA tests prove Leo Waters did not commit these crimes. This pardon of innocence fully exonerates Mr. Waters," Easley said in a statement.

DNA testing wasn't available when Waters was arrested, but the victim identified him as her attacker and authorities said his blood type matched that of the rapist. When Waters' DNA was analyzed in 2003 it didn't match samples left behind by the attacker. Those samples were compared with other samples contained in a national registry and they matched Caulk's, investigators said.

Report here


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