Lewis Fogle freed by DNA after serving 34 years for teen’s murder

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lewis-fogle-freed-dna-after-serving-34-years-teens-murder

By Tracy Connor
Aug. 13, 2015

A Pennsylvania man who served 34 years in prison for the rape and murder of a teenage girl — after being fingered by jailhouse snitches — was released Thursday because of new DNA tests.

A judge vacated the conviction of Lewis Fogle for the 1976 killing of Deanna “Kathy” Long, and now prosecutors have to decide whether they want to retry him.

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Fogle’s case was championed by the Innocence Project, which pressed police to unearth old physical evidence and retest it. The Indiana County district attorney’s office agreed to the retesting.

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The lab excluded Fogle — who was serving a life sentence — as the source of sperm found on the victim, and prosecutors agreed to ask the court to toss the conviction.

Indiana County District Attorney Patrick Dougherty said his investigators are now combing through the remaining evidence to see if they have a strong enough case to retry the 63-year-old.

“My belief is he was involved. The question is whether I can prove it,” Dougherty said.

Dougherty said there was no physical evidence against Fogle in the original case. He was convicted mainly on the testimony of jailhouse informants who said he confessed to killing the 15-year-old five years after the murder.

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http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/da-will-not-retry-lewis-fogle-freed-dna-after-34-n427161

Prosecutor Will Not Retry Lewis Fogle, Man Freed by DNA After 34 Years in Jail

by Tracy Connor
Sept. 14, 2015

A Pennsylvania prosecutor will not retry a man who served 34 years in prison for rape and murder before new DNA tests won his release.

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Fogle, who is now 64, was found guilty and sentenced to life largely on the testimony of jailhouse snitches who claimed he had confessed — five years after the crime.

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The Innocence Project called for better cataloging of evidence, noting that it took five years for authorities to find the victim's clothing and genetic material that ultimately got Fogle out of prison.

It also noted that Pennsylvania has no mechanism for compensating inmates who were wrongly convicted.

tags: innocent