"INNOCENCE PROJECT" SUCCESSES

Innocence projects began opening prison doors for those wrongly convicted about the same time that Rose began serving his 27-year sentence. The first was founded in New York in 1992 to tap the potential of DNA for proving people innocent. Today, 30 or so projects are operating out of law schools and journalism schools around the country. Most aren't confined to DNA work but consider any conviction that can be upended by new evidence.

It can be cut and dried, as in one Los Angeles robbery case. A surveillance tape showed the 6-foot-6 robber walking past a ruler that had been painted on the frame of the Office Depot entry door. The man convicted of the crime, Jason Kindle, was a head shorter.

Or the evidence can involve a web of false confessions, coerced accusations, eyewitness mistakes and laboratory blunders that can take years to unravel.

Two California projects have won the release of Kindle and six other men since 2000. Dozens of cases are under investigation at the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego and the Northern California Innocence Project, based at Santa Clara University with a new satellite office at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. The Rose victory was the first for Golden Gate.

Relatively crude tests performed on rape evidence in 1995 did not exclude Rose as the possible rapist. Attempts to DNA-type the semen sample had failed then. But after many advances in technology, a successful test became possible. Former Golden Gate student Marilyn Underwood "pushed and pushed and pushed," she said, until the state DNA lab confirmed it still had the evidence and, yes, there was enough to do a DNA test. Two other students with two supervising lawyers wrote the petition that persuaded the judge to order testing. The results showed the evidence hadn't come from Rose and led to his release on Oct. 29.

After the victim's recantation, followed by more DNA results in January, another student team helped prepare a motion to have Rose declared "factually innocent." Granted a month ago, it led to the clearing of his criminal record. The judge, a former county prosecutor, called the experience "an education for me." One student, George Derieg, who worked on the final phase of the case, called it "exhilarating." Rose called the Innocence Project "the best thing that's ever happened to the justice system."

But Janice Brickley, the lawyer who supervised the project's work, asked in the court hearing for "a day of reflection" - on convicting an innocent man, a father whose youngest child hadn't been born when he went to prison, a son who couldn't support his mother when she went through cancer treatments, a grandson whose grandfather spent his life savings on a defense and died before seeing the exoneration. Brickley told the judge she had received an e-mail from a correctional officer, saying he felt "just terrible" that he didn't believe Rose when he said he was innocent....

In San Diego, Ken Marsh was freed last summer after 21 years in prison for the death of his girlfriend's toddler. When the Cal Western Innocence Project produced medical evidence pointing to an accidental death, Dumanis stipulated to Marsh's release and asked the court to dismiss the charges.

In the nation, thousands of criminals have been caught with the help of DNA technology, and more than 150 innocent people have been released from prison.

In 1985, Stoll, a carpenter and gas plant supervisor who'd never been in trouble before, was sentenced to 40 years. He was among those caught up in a frenzy over alleged sex rings targeting youngsters in Kern County. No physical evidence showed the children had been abused. The prosecutions ended when the children's stories escalated wildly. Most of the 40 or so convicted defendants were freed. Yet Stoll remained in prison. Abandoned by family and community, he thought he'd been forgotten - until an exonerated defendant persuaded his lawyer to do something for Stoll. The lawyer contacted the Innocence Project. Cal Western and Santa Clara students and lawyers worked on the case.

The defense team tracked down Stoll's now-grown accusers. Ridolfi personally paid to fly in witnesses for hearings. Four of the six men recanted. They said they never had believed their accusations but had been coerced by law enforcement and social workers. The fifth said he had no memory of the time. Only Stoll's sixth accuser - his son - stuck to his original story, though he could offer no details.

Stoll was released last spring, nearly penniless. Ridolfi and her partner, Innocence Project legal director Linda Starr, invited him to stay in their guest cottage for a year to get his bearings. He lives there today, surrounded by photos of friends but none of his son, his wife or his former Bakersfield home... Stoll has applied for state compensation that's available to innocent people who've lost money through wrongful imprisonment. It can amount of $100 for each day of loss, but it's rarely granted and never yet to someone exonerated through the Innocence Project.

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