Many
people are innocently convicted of horrendous crimes they never even
thought about committing. Murders, rapes, burglaries, and other high end
crimes as such are more prone to eye-witness accounts than fingerprints
and biological DNA samples, as sometimes those are not left behind for
investigators to work with.
In
May, 1991, two sisters were brutally raped at knifepoint. The two young
girls, being confused from this horrendous crime, thought they had seen
the former neighbor of theirs, Mr. Joseph Abbitt over them at the time.
Abbitt was charged with first degree kidnapping, rape, and burglary,
which ended up with two life sentences plus
an extra 110 years of prison time. He spent 14 years in prison when
they finally exonerated him with the lack of evidence proving he did it,
and the evidence proving he was not there.
I find that such investigations are ludicrous, for the simple fact they chose not to investigate beyond the word of a couple of naive little girls. Granted, the two would have been able to correctly identify the man who raped them, but they could have done this after biological samples were taken from the rape kit and even in their bodies. Since one girl was 16, it would be very possible she would have traces of the semen in her system, as she most likely got pregnant from the experience. Simple things such as those listed could have saved the innocent man, Abbitt, from having such a long term, and even being in prison in the first place.
