Markus Rendell's blog ::Lions fans, Calvin Johnson caught a touchdown!
Imagine being stopped for a minor traffic infraction and months later being charged with rape. All from an eye witness account, which gave the name of the person who violently raped them. Yet, it was not your name that the eye witness gave. Now, fathom the thought of spending over 25 years in prison for this rape you were charged with. This is what happened to Rickie Johnson. You will read his story as it unfolded and understand the principles of the DNA test that exonerated him. In northwest Louisiana, on July 12, 1982, the perpetrator broke into a woman's home at 1:00am in the morning, remained inside the residence for several hours raping the victim twice, at gun point. The perpetrator told the victim his name was Marcus Johnson and spoke of several details of his life. He gave details like where his ex-girlfriend lived, that he was on probation, and even gave the town where he was from. The victim called the police the next morning. That immediately started, the downward spiral that lead, to Rickie Johnson's wrongful conviction. The victim was brought to the hospital and was examined, obtaining sperm from the perpetrator during the victim's vaginal exam. Sabine Parish Sheriff's department contacted Leesville Sheriff's department stating they were looking for a man by the name of Marcus Johnson. Leesville had no knowledge of that name, but did bring up the name Rickie Johnson that had similar information of the perpetrator that Sabine Parish was looking for, from the victim's description. At this time, Rickie was on probation for a minor traffic violation, putting his name into the system that ultimately failed him for over a quarter of a century to come. The victim was asked to look at a photo line up that contained three pictures of men, one being Rickie positioned in the middle. The victim identified Rickie from an eight year old photo. This system of identifying perpetrators has failed many years over, proving that eye witness accounts can be persuaded by images presented to them. Victims think that they know every detail of their perpetrator. When given the opportunity to identify a suspect in a photo line up the victim usually chooses the best fit, thinking the detectives already have a suspect lying within the photos. The system of photo line ups is being greatly improved after many years of deception. Advocates of misidentified suspects have developed an electronic system giving the victim only one picture at a time to look at. This system leads victims through a wealth of suspect photos instead of just a couple photos lying on a table. This decreases the chances of the victim choosing a suspect from just a handful of photos. "Memory researchers state that method produces more reliable identifications." (Willing) Rickie Johnson was arrested two days after the attack based on the victim's identification of him. There were no other suspects investigated for this crime. Almost a week later Rickie stood in a line up with five men. The victim picked Rickie out of that line up, which once again Rickie was in the middle. Rickie protested and claimed he was innocent. At trial, the line up was not admitted due to Rickie Johnson not having an attorney present at the time of the line up. The sperm sample was sent to the crime lab to be examined. Serological testing was performed on the sample. This type of testing consists of identification of antibodies in the sample formed in response to an infection. This test also identifies the type of blood the sample is. The crime lab concluded that Rickie Johnson's sample along with 35% of the population could have been the perpetrator of this rape. With the eye witness, the coincidence of the suspects, and the serology test, prosecutors pursued charges against Rickie Johnson. In January 1983, Rickie Johnson was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to life without parole. The sentence was to be carried out within the walls of Louisiana's State Penitentiary at Angola (AKA "The Farm"); which is one of the largest prisons in the U.S. This prison was developed in 1901, and is the same prison the movie, "The Green Mile" portrayed life on death row of the 1930's and "Dead Man Walking". Warden Cain, who runs this prison, maintains the prison as a working farm to this day. In a personal phone interview conducted by Ms. Marshall with Mr. Johnson, he stated, "My attorneys immediately filed a direct appeal in my case." Johnson also stated that he never gave up the appeals process. His attorney's re-filed appeals every time the courts denied Johnson's case. The appeals process taking approximately three years per appeal; which ran through the District Court, the 3rd Circuit Court, and finally the Supreme Court. Johnson filed approximately 8 appeals that were denied, before the Innocent Project accepted his case. During Johnson's incarceration, he brushed shoulders with some very violent criminals and some that were also incarcerated wrongfully. He would never really know who he was barricaded behind these walls with until he was released. His determination kept him from giving in to prison life. He earned trustee status and worked in the soap room where he oversaw the shipping and receiving of soap products and also documented inventory. In his free time, Johnson worked in the hobby shop where he obtained the knowledge of leather working, giving him 20 years experience at his new trade. Johnson proclaimed his innocence until someone would listen. One day, someone did listen. Johnson's good friend, Calvin Willis was also incarcerated wrongfully started working with the Innocent Project. Willis was convicted of aggravated rape of a child that occurred in 1981. Yet again, the crime lab performed serology tests, with some samples comparable and some not. Willis was sentenced in 1982 to life in prison without parole, where just a year later, Johnson would end up. The two would become good friends and spent many years together within the confinement of the prison. Willis was accepted by the Innocent Project and DNA testing was order of the samples from the crime. Willis was cleared of the crime committed against the child and was exonerated in 2003. Willis spent 22 years in prison. The original perpetrator was never found to date. Willis encouraged Johnson to contact the Innocent Project and gave him the information to do so. Johnson's daughter even wrote the Innocent Project, 22 years later after her father's conviction, proclaiming her fathers innocence. In 2006, the Innocent Project accepted Rickie Johnson's case and quickly obtained the evidence from the rape with the D.A.'s approval. Late 2007, the evidence was sent off to a lab to have mini-STR (Short Tandem Repeats) DNA testing performed. Short Tandem Repeats (STR) is the short segments of DNA that repeat their self. The sequences are consisted of two to seven bases that can repeat up to 17 times. One set of these repeats are inherited by the mother on one chromosome and the other from the father. These sequences are targeted for copying by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PRC). (Bucholtz, Lewis 212) Mini-STR DNA testing is designed specifically for degraded samples. Johnson's case would fall under this requirement. "This mini-STR process reduces the size of amplicons, which increases the detection of DNA by focusing on smaller size fragments providing the best opportunity to obtain results from degraded DNA." (Klevan and Schade 2007) Johnson's DNA results were compared with the evidence collected from the victim and Johnson was excluded from being a perpetrator of the rape 24 years earlier. Now the question is who, if not Johnson, committed this violent sexual act? The profile was ran through the FBI database CODIS. The CODIS system consists of 13 of these STR's to give an accuracy of 1 in 1 billion. When the DNA profile was ran, there was a hit. This means there is someone in the system already, which matches the DNA that was taken from the victim. The perpetrator was John McNeal. An investigation was conducted to tie McNeal to the victim. John McNeal was located through the offender's database. He was convicted of aggravated rape of a 19 year old woman in the exact same apartment complex of the woman who accused Johnson of rape. The time difference between the two crimes was just three months. Mc Neal is serving a life sentence for his crimes. Scary to think Johnson met the man who caused him to be incarcerated and the man who guided him how to get exonerated from the bars that held him from his family. On January 14, 2008, Rickie Johnson's was cleared of the charges and he was exonerated. He was the 11th in Louisiana and the 211th person to be exonerated from U.S. prisons. Rickie Johnson spent over 25 years of his life incarcerated for a crime someone else committed. Johnson was greeted by 33 of his family members at his release. Yet, the 52 year old Johnson is not angry about his wrongful incarceration. He stated to KSLA 12 News, that he learned leather working while incarcerated and hopes to one day start his own leather business. In March 28, 2008, Rickie Johnson was reunited with his long time friend Calvin Willis. The two met at San Jose Airport, accompanied by Willis's wife, Elizabeth. The two innocent men have not seen each other since approximately 1992. They spent time reminiscing about their release, laughing and catching up on each others lives. Both men appeared happy for their blessing of life renewed and never showed animosity for years of their lives that had been striped from them. Louisiana has a standard restitution of $150,000 to anyone mistakenly imprisoned in their state facilities. Johnson was awarded this restitution in late September 2008 and did exactly as he wished to do. Johnson opened his own leather shop. He offers belts, wallets, purses, sandals, and anything one would want. Johnson admits that the shop is small now but one day hopes that word of mouth will expand his business. On May 8, 2009, I found Mr. Johnson and contacted him for a personal phone interview. I confirmed the information in my report with him and asked about his appeals that his attorney's filed; which I have included above. Mr. Johnson came across as a very modest man. He was well mannered and very cooperative about answering questions about his case. When I asked about his daughter that had wrote the Innocent Project about his innocents he confirmed this was true and appeared to be very pleased. Mr. Johnson stated that he has never been married, but does have two daughters and two sons. I was and still am very impressed at the optimistic outlook Mr. Johnson has on life, even after a quarter of a century of his life was taken from him. Mr. Johnson resides a little over 200 miles from where he spent half his life in Angola. He is running his business, RJ leather shop, where he was when the telephone interview was conducted. Johnson stated, "The shop is growing". Ironically enough, Johnson started his business one year to the date of his release; this giving him a fresh start at the world that initially betrayed him. The shop is located in his brother-in-laws, William Dudley, converted gas station. Johnson has bought property to someday build a bigger shop and get involved in the community. He wants to start a summer program for the children in his church one day, to help keep them out of trouble. William Dudley was married to Johnson's older sister, Shirley, who also proclaimed her brothers innocence. Shirley always told her husband to keep the door to the business open for Johnson's return. Shirley was never to see her brothers return as a free man. After finding out that her brother's DNA was going to exonerate him Shirley past away on December 22, 2007, just 23 days before Johnson was released. After Johnson was released, he had to order a copy of his birth certificate to restart his new life. At this time he found out the true spelling of his name. The courts, along with him, thought the spelling was, "Rickey". That is when he found that the spelling of his name was actually, "Rickie". Not only did he get his life back but the stigma of Rickey was now gone and the new Rickie was released to the world and able to forge ahead in life leaving a better name for himself and his family. The world can not give you back the years you have missed but the world can pray for your future. Good luck to you, Mr. Rickie Johnson and may God bless you and your family in the years to come. http://www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/freeform/EyewitnessID007?OpenDocument http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serology http://www.leesvilledailyleader.com/news/x1512924485/Howard-secures-funds-for-Johnson-on-wrongful-conviction http://www.sorensonforensics.com/f_mstr.html http://www.forensicmag.com/articles.asp?pid=131 http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=9699358&nav=menu50_2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxNfZQYJm94 http://lethal-injection-florida.blogspot.com/2008/01/rickey-johnson-freed-in-louisiana-after.html http://whitepages.anywho.com/results.php?ReportType=34&refer=2938&adword=ANYWHO.COM&qf=Rickie&qi=0&qk=10&qn=Johnson&qs=LA&PHPSESSID=7b29ea14a84f9038257fda5a2470c90e http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Leesville&1s=LA&1a=[15800-15803]+Nolan+Trce&1z=71446&1y=US&1l=31.14545&1g=-93.30335&2c=Angola&2s=LA&2y=US&2l=30.9503&2g=-91.569199&2v=CITY http://netk.net.au/USA/USA60.asp Phone interview: May 08, 2009 at 10:50am Conducted with Rickie Johnson |
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