TWO MEN ARE CONVICTED OF A BRUTAL RAPE THEY SAY THEY DIDN’T COMMIT, AND DNA EVIDENCE BACKS THEM UP – CAN A COLLEGE PROFESSOR, HER STUDENTS AND TECHNOLOGY CLEAR THEM?
“48 Hours” Is There When Groundbreaking Technology Changes the Case
“Guilty until Proven Innocent” Saturday, Feb. 4, 10:00 PM
(L-R) Roosevelt Glenn and Darryl Pinkins.
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Darryl Pinkins spent 26 years in prison serving time for a conviction in a brutal rape case. He swears he didn’t do it. Roosevelt Glenn, who along with Pinkins, was tried for the 1989 rape, also vows he had nothing to do with the crime. DNA evidence available at the time did not tie either man to the case. Yet they were both convicted.
Maureen Maher and 48 HOURS investigate the evidence against Pinkins and Glenn, and how a new DNA technology changed their fates forever in “Guilty until Proven Innocent” to be broadcast Saturday, Feb. 4 (10:00 PM ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. It’s a case that raises questions about the investigation process, about the technology used decades ago, and about how two men can be convicted of a crime when the initial DNA evidence excluded them. Moreover, it’s a case that looks at how a new way to examine DNA evidence has the potential to change the outcome in thousands of cases nationwide.
“When the judge said ‘75 years,’ I’m 38 years old, that’s like a death sentence,” Pinkins tells Maureen Maher. “I’m going to die in prison for a crime I didn’t do.”
“I had suicide all over me for a while,” Glenn says of being in prison.
At the time of the trial, investigators had a pair of workman coveralls – the kind worn at the shop where Pinkins and Glenn worked – and a victim who said she could identify one of her five alleged attackers. They also had the DNA evidence.
How confident was investigator Mike Solan, who was the lead detective on the case, of the evidence he had?
“No question,” the now-retired Solan tells Maher. “We had DNA evidence that was taken off of her clothing.”
At trial, the state argued that DNA testing was new and unreliable, especially in this case, because the evidence was a mixture of DNA from several people, and at the time there was no way to extrapolate specific people. As such, they argued there was no way to definitively rule out Pinkins and Glenn.
“When it’s not you in the DNA, it’s not you. Nothing to talk about, and everybody knew it before trial,” says DNA expert Greg Hampikian.
Pinkins and Glenn’s fate seemed to be sealed – behind bars – until their cases drew the attention of Indiana law professor Fran Watson, who, along with her students over a 15-year period, continued to dig into the case and search for clues. Everything changed for them when a new technology called TrueAllele came along, which could separate the genetic mixture in the DNA evidence.
Could it clear the men? Maher and 48 HOURS are there when the results come in for this groundbreaking case.
48 HOURS: “Guilty until Proven Innocent” is produced by Judy Rybak. Alicia Tejada is the field producer. Mike Baluzy is the producer-editor. George Baluzy is the editor. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.
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