Lessons Not Learned - The Innocence Project

APPenDIx A
process. On July 18, 1990, the New York Supreme Court affirmed the
conviction, ruling that even if the lineup was not properly conducted,
the in-court identification was enough to convict Chalmers. He later
discovered that the Westchester Department of Laboratories and
Research had retained the rape kit and items of clothing which were
used as evidence at trial and he petitioned for DNA testing with the
help of the Innocence Project.
Forensic Science Associates performed PCR based DNA testing on
the vaginal and cervical swabs from the rape kit. In a report dated
July 8, 1994, it was determined that the victim could not be the
source of DNA in the sperm fraction from the swabs. A second report
on July 26, 1994, determined that Chalmers could be eliminated as
the source of the spermatozoa from the vaginal and cervical swabs.
The conviction was subsequently vacated and charges were dismissed
on January 31, 1995. Chalmers had spent seven and a half years in
prison.
5. Victor ortiz – orange County
Convicted in 1984 of rape and sodomy that happened in 1983
Sentenced to 25 years
Age at conviction: 28
Served 11.5 years; exonerated in 1996
Factors leading to wrongful conviction: eyewitness misidentification
Victor Ortiz was charged with and convicted of rape in the first
degree, sodomy in the first degree for engaging in deviate sexual
intercourse in the form of anal intercourse, and sodomy in the first
degree for engaging in deviate sexual intercourse in the form of
oral intercourse. He was tried by a jury and convicted on January 17,
1984, of the 1983 rape and related charges. On February 15, 1984,
Ortiz was sentenced to concurrent terms of twelve and one half to
twenty-five years imprisonment on each of the three counts.
On January 8, 1983, the seventeen year old victim was abducted at
gun point from a street corner outside of her boyfriend’s house
in Newburgh, New York. Her attacker then took her to the woods,
where he walked with her for a lengthy period of time before raping
her. Her clothes were taken off, including her underwear, and the
perpetrator raped her vaginally, anally, and orally. Afterward, she put
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