Man who was cleared of rape by DNA evidence awarded $9 million

That should be enough money to make someone in authority think about reining in the crooked cops of Illinois

CHICAGO: A federal jury today awarded a 33-year-old man who spent four years in prison for a rape he didn't commit more than nine million dollars. Alejandro Dominguez was convicted of a 1989 home invasion and rape in Waukegan when he was 16 years old. But in August 2005 he was pardoned by the governor and his record was officially cleared because D-N-A evidence showed he wasn't the rapist.

During the two-week trial, Dominguez's lawyer, Jon Loevy, said that Waukegan police violated his client's due process rights to a fair trial. Loevy says police pushed the victim to pick Dominguez out of a one-person lineup. Because of the wrongful conviction, Dominguez had difficulty finding employment, had trouble with his immigration status and was forced to register as a sex offender.

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Background:

In 1990, Alejandro Dominguez, then a 16 year-old Mexican national, was convicted and sentenced to 9 years in prison for the rape of a white woman in Illinois.

Dominquez's conviction was based primarily on the victim's identification. The eyewitness identification procedure employed by the investigators was biased and highly suggestive. On cross examination, the victim testified that the lead detective had singled out Dominguez during the lineup and asked the victim if he was "the one." She concurred. This identification was also undermined by the victim's own disregarded testimony in which her description of the attacker did not match Dominguez. She told police that her attacker wore a diamond earring and had a tattoo, but Dominquez had neither a pierced ear nor any tattoos. She also said that he spoke to her in English, but Dominquez only spoke Spanish.

Forensics also played a part in Dominguez's conviction. William Wilson, a forensic serologist from Northern Illinois Crime Laboratory, testified that serological testing on semen recovered from the victim could not exclude Dominguez. The fact that 67% of the population could not be excluded was not discussed or volunteered.

Dominguez served four years of a nine year sentence. After Immigration and Naturalization Service threatened to deport him for failing to register his conviction in 2001, he sought DNA testing, at his own expense, to prove his innocence. Dominguez was officially exonerated on April 26, 2002, after DNA testing proved that he could not have deposited the semen left by the perpetrator.

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(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)