Man wrongly convicted of Inglewood murder freed after 38 years by DNA evidence
A man has been freed after 38 years with no DNA evidence to prove his innocence in the killing of a young boy when he was 12.
The man, named only as Frank, was wrongly imprisoned for a murder he did not commit in Inglewood in 1967.
The case against him became a major hurdle to the California Innocence Project, which helped prove Frank’s innocence.
It took years for the Innocence Project to prove Frank’s innocence, and the case has now been taken up by California’s governor, Jerry Brown.
Frank’s DNA was found on an alleyway wall where one of the murder victim’s bones showed up in a metal fence.
Frank had told authorities that he accidentally fell down a flight of stairs which resulted in a head injury. He denied the murder of 12-year-old Jonathan Thomas.
The new evidence, the Innocence Project said in a statement issued in January, is “the best evidence of Frank’s innocence”.
The news came out a week after a former crime scene specialist in San Jose who was responsible for the work in 1967 said he was shocked at the new DNA findings.
“It’s mind-boggling,” the man named as Jack said in a telephone interview. “I wasn’t aware that this had happened until today. In my mind there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that it’s Frank’s blood.
“It’s really amazing. I can’t believe it,” the former lab technician said.
Although the DNA evidence was strong, it would have taken years of meticulous questioning to determine it, the Innocence Project said.
‘We were in the dark’
The murder of 12-year-old Jonathan Thomas in Inglewood was a case of mistaken identity that gained national attention in the 1970s and ‘80s.
The case was finally solved in 2010 when it was revealed that three months after shooting and killing a hitchhiker, Frank, an ex-convict and father who used the name Mark, left behind a bloody knife.
The new DNA evidence suggests that the