DNA Reportedly Exonerates Inmate
Decatur Man Has Served 17 Years For Rape

By Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 26, 2004

New DNA evidence proves that a Decatur man who has spent 17 years in prison for rape, kidnapping and robbery did not commit the crimes, his lawyers said Thursday.

Clarence Harrison, 44, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 on charges of sexually assaulting a hospital employee as she waited for a MARTA bus. But new DNA tests of the rape kit used as evidence against Harrison show that he did not commit the rape, said Aimee Maxwell, director of the Georgia Innocence Project. Maxwell said Harrison's lawyers will file an extraordinary motion for a new trial that is expected to lead to their client's exoneration.

The Innocence Project will disclose the new findings at a news conference at the DeKalb County Courthouse today.
" It's a bittersweet moment for us," Maxwell said. "A man has spent almost 18 years of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit. But we are very excited to be able to help him."

The Innocence Project, including four of its interns, has been working on Harrison's case since February 2003, when the group received a letter from him. Maxwell said that when Harrison was told that the tests showed his DNA did not match the assailant's, he showed no surprise. "He was very calm about it," she said. "That's because he already knew the answer." According to a police report, the 25-year-old victim, who worked at Grady Memorial Hospital, was standing at a MARTA bus stop on Oakview Road at 6 a.m. Oct. 25, 1986, when a man walked up to her, struck her in the face and said, "If you scream, I'll kill you right here." He then walked her to a wooded area and repeatedly raped and sodomized her, the report said.

The attacker took her money and watch and knocked out two front teeth, after which she ran from him to a nearby residence, the report said. Police later found her umbrella and clothes strewn about the area. The woman initially identified Harrison from a photographic lineup and later identified him at the trial, Maxwell said. David Wolfe, an Atlanta lawyer who volunteered to represent Harrison, called the case "one of those examples where technology demonstrates that eyewitness identification and other testimony at trial isn't as reliable as people believe it is."

An analysis of the DNA tests, conducted by Forensic Science Associates in Richmond, Calif., shows that "our client was excluded 100 percent from being the donor," Wolfe said. "They said it couldn't have been him." Both Maxwell and Wolfe applauded the DeKalb County district attorney's office for its cooperation in getting the DNA tests conducted.
" The office and its interest in truth and fair play played a substantial role in this," Wolfe said. "The office demonstrates what the justice system is about: seeking the truth."

More than 150 convictions have been overturned nationwide based on new DNA test results, Maxwell said.
The Georgia Innocence Project, founded two years ago, has received letters from more than 1,400 inmates seeking to have their convictions overturned. The project has six open cases, including Harrison's, and is investigating more than 250 others.

Earlier this month, in its first case, the Innocence Project announced that DNA tests conducted by Forensic Science Associates had validated a jury's verdict that Joe Brown of Lowndes County did rape a Valdosta woman in 1987.