another man free after spending 10 years in prison after he was framed by sacramento cops Original Article Oct 31, 4:48 AM EST DNA clears man convicted of raping teen By JIM WASSERMAN Associated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A man who spent 10 years behind bars has been freed after a judge acknowledged new DNA evidence and overturned his conviction for raping a 13-year-old girl. The San Joaquin County judge on Friday released Peter J. Rose, citing DNA tests that showed evidence used to convict Peter J. Rose did not match his genetic makeup. Rose, 36, of Lodi, left Mule Creek State Prison in Ione late Friday amid tears and hugs from his children, relatives, friends and law students from San Francisco's Golden Gate University who pursued his case years after evidence had been stored away and forgotten. "I've been doing this for 25 years, and I feel like this is the best use of my legal skills my entire career," said Oakland attorney Janice Brickley, a law professor who supervised the students on the case. "It was an incredibly emotional experience." Brickley and students affiliated with the university's branch of the Northern California Innocence Project discovered evidence thought to have been lost or destroyed and won permission for new DNA tests that triggered the judge's decision Friday. Brickley said she was nervous about letting Rose comment on the case because the district attorney could refile charges against him. He was believed to have gone to his mother's house in Mendocino County, but a phone number for her could not be found. The girl was raped in 1994 while she was walking to school. Rose was arrested after she told police three weeks later that she believed he was responsible. But she had not identified him during a police lineup and initially told police her attacker was a stranger. Rose's attorneys a decade ago said he was an acquaintance of her family. Rose was convicted in 1996 of rape, kidnapping and other charges based on blood evidence that prosecutors said linked Rose to the crime. A sobbing Rose, who had no previous history of violence, proclaimed his innocence as a judge sentenced him to 27 years in prison. The district attorney's office has until January to decide if it will refile charges. Officials there said the office had lost contact with the victim. Rose said Friday he probably will file a claim against the state. 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10058296.htm?1c Posted on Sun, Oct. 31, 2004 DNA Clears Man Convicted of Raping Teen JIM WASSERMAN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A man who spent 10 years behind bars has been freed after a judge acknowledged new DNA evidence and overturned his conviction for raping a 13-year-old girl. The San Joaquin County judge on Friday released Peter J. Rose, citing DNA tests that showed evidence used to convict Peter J. Rose did not match his genetic makeup. Rose, 36, of Lodi, left Mule Creek State Prison in Ione late Friday amid tears and hugs from his children, relatives, friends and law students from San Francisco's Golden Gate University who pursued his case years after evidence had been stored away and forgotten. "I've been doing this for 25 years, and I feel like this is the best use of my legal skills my entire career," said Oakland attorney Janice Brickley, a law professor who supervised the students on the case. "It was an incredibly emotional experience." Brickley and students affiliated with the university's branch of the Northern California Innocence Project discovered evidence thought to have been lost or destroyed and won permission for new DNA tests that triggered the judge's decision Friday. Brickley said she was nervous about letting Rose comment on the case because the district attorney could refile charges against him. He was believed to have gone to his mother's house in Mendocino County, but a phone number for her could not be found. The girl was raped in 1994 while she was walking to school. Rose was arrested after she told police three weeks later that she believed he was responsible. But she had not identified him during a police lineup and initially told police her attacker was a stranger. Rose's attorneys a decade ago said he was an acquaintance of her family. Rose was convicted in 1996 of rape, kidnapping and other charges based on blood evidence that prosecutors said linked Rose to the crime. A sobbing Rose, who had no previous history of violence, proclaimed his innocence as a judge sentenced him to 27 years in prison. The district attorney's office has until January to decide if it will refile charges. Officials there said the office had lost contact with the victim. Rose said Friday he probably will file a claim against the state. http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~26642~2504103,00.html DNA clears Lodi man after 10 years behind bars By Jim Wasserman, Associated Press SACRAMENTO - A Lodi man who spent 10 years behind bars tasted his first full day of freedom yesterday after a San Joaquin County judge acknowledged new DNA evidence and overturned his conviction for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1994. The judge on Friday released Peter J. Rose, 36, citing new laboratory tests that showed evidence used to convince a Stockton jury of his guilt in 1996 did not match Rose's genetic makeup. Rose, a father of four, was believed headed to his mother's house in Mendocino County. He left Mule Creek State Prison in Ione late Friday amid tears and hugs from his children, relatives, friends and law students from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, who pursued his case years after evidence had been stored away and forgotten. "I've been doing this for 25 years, and I feel like this is the best use of my legal skills my entire career," said Oakland attorney Janice Brickley, a law professor who supervised Golden Gate University on the case. "It was an incredibly emotional experience. We all had tears coming down our cheeks." Brickley and students affiliated with the university branch of the Northern California Innocence Project, discovered evidence thought lost or destroyed and won permission for new DNA tests. "They came back excluding him about three weeks ago," Brickley said. "It took three weeks to get him out." Brickley said she was nervous about letting Rose comment on the case because the district attorney could refile charges. A jury convicted Rose in 1996 of rape, kidnapping and other charges based on blood evidence that prosecutors said linked Rose to the crime. Rose, who had no history of violence, proclaimed his innocence as a judge sentenced him to 27 years. The San Joaquin County District Attorney's office has until January to decide if it will refile charges against Rose. http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/crime/story/11263131p-12178447c.html DNA test frees man convicted in '94 Lodi rape By Cheryl Miller -- Bee Correspondent Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, October 30, 2004 Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here. STOCKTON - A Lodi man sentenced to 27 years in prison walked out a free man Friday after DNA evidence failed to link him to the 1994 rape of a 13-year-old girl. A San Joaquin County judge overturned Peter J. Rose's 8-year-old conviction based on the new DNA evidence. Over the objections of prosecutors, San Joaquin Superior Court Judge Stephen Demetras ordered Rose, 36, immediately released from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione. A sweats-clad Rose was taken to the prison's administrative center around 3 p.m., where he was immediately swarmed by his four children. Tears flowed as he hugged each of the 16 friends, relatives and advocates who traveled to Ione to greet him. "Thank you! Thank you!" Rose said to the two attorneys and four law students who worked for his freedom. A prison van then carried Rose to the facility's front gates, where he became a free man for the first time since his arrest 10 years ago. The New York City-based Innocence Project said 152 people nationwide have been exonerated like Rose since 1989 - six from California - by testing DNA evidence that may not have been considered during the original trial. The California attorney general's office does not track convicted felons exonerated by DNA, said Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for the office. The New York Innocence Project's Web site said the most recent Californian to be exonerated before Rose is a 44-year-old Los Angeles man serving a life sentence for killing three people. David Allen Jones was released in March after nine years in prison. In the last decade, as the biological profile in DNA found in blood, semen or saliva helped convict the guilty, those convicted sought to resort to the same evidence to prove their innocence. But inmates often faced lengthy legal battles and resistance from prosecutors. After the work of groups like the Innocence Project, a nonprofit law clinic that focused exclusively on post-conviction DNA cases, more states passed laws to guarantee an inmate's right to scientific technology that might not have been available during trial. California passed its law in 2000 that ensured inmates the opportunity to have DNA evidence tested if a positive result would affect the original verdict. Earlier this year, Congress proposed a law that would grant federal convicts post-conviction testing, which is awaiting President Bush's signature. For Rose, advanced tests - unavailable to investigators at his 1996 trial - conducted this summer revealed that DNA found on the victim's clothing did not match the Lodi man's. "We're just pretty much stunned," said Tanya Austin, the mother of Rose's teenage daughter, Ashley Rose. "He thought this was going to happen before and got his hopes up." San Joaquin County District Attorney John Phillips has until January to decide whether to refile charges against Rose. Deputy District Attorney Brian Short said that "there were problems with the case" and that his office has lost contact with the victim. In 1994, a middle school student told police that Rose, then an unemployed beekeeper, grabbed her off a Lodi street and raped her in an alley. Rose's attorneys said he was an acquaintance of the girl's family. Evidence on the girl's clothing proved too scant for investigators to glean a DNA profile with the techniques available at the time, court documents said. Other tests showed blood on the clothing matched the victim but not Rose - information the jury never heard. The prosecution instead pointed to a PGM marker, a sort of genetic fingerprint, found in blood. The marker matched the teen and Rose, along with 30 percent of the population. The victim named Rose as her attacker three weeks after the rape. She had not identified him in a lineup and initially said that her assailant was a stranger, court documents said. A jury found Rose guilty of four counts related to the rape. As Rose sobbed and proclaimed his innocence, a judge sentenced him to the maximum sentence of 27 years behind bars. He filed appeal after appeal with state and federal courts. Most were rejected. Then, his attorney called the Northern California Innocence Project, a nonprofit program by Golden Gate University in San Francisco. "The more I heard about the case, the more I was convinced he was innocent," said Janice Brickley, an attorney with project. Golden Gate law students, who earn academic credit for work on the program, tracked down evidence that authorities originally said was destroyed years ago. Project attorneys petitioned the court for modern DNA testing on the victim's clothing, which cleared Rose as a source. The lawyers asked the state attorney general's office and the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office to assist them in overturning the conviction. The district attorney's office balked, arguing that stains may have been the result of consensual sex with someone else, a scenario the judge apparently rejected. Rose probably will spend some time with his mother and brother, who live in the coastal community of Point Arena, Brickley said, and he probably will file a claim with the state to seek some sort of compensation. Friday, the jubilant family gathered at an Ione restaurant, where Rose sat at a table and looked in wonder at the empty place mat. Today's lunch, he said, would not come on a prison tray.