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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former death row inmate in Tennessee has been cleared of murder, three years after the Supreme Court raised repeated questions about his conviction.
After 22 years on death row, Paul House was released on bail and has now been cleared of murder charges.
1 of 2 State prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to drop all charges against Paul House, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in 1986. Special Judge Jon Blackwood accepted the request.
House had been scheduled to be executed next month for the 1985 murder of Carolyn Muncey. He had been on death
Originally posted by Republican08
This is why I always never understood the whole Quick and Speedy trial, you can't be extremely hasty, although 22 years is neither of the two.
What a life, his whole life has been ruined, he I'd assume can't go back to the job he had 22 years ago. No telling if he's been institutionalized.
He was a friend of Muncey's husband, but claimed he was in his own house several miles away the evening of the murder. But prosecutors found a hole in his alibi, discovering that he had left his home the night of the murder and returned about an hour later with unexplained cuts and bruises.
Forensic evidence found Muncey's blood on House's jeans, but questions were later raised whether the samples were contaminated en route to an FBI lab for analysis.
Subsequent state-of-the art DNA testing conducted after the conviction showed that semen on the victim belonged to her husband, not House. Blood under her fingernails and cigarette butts discovered near the wooded crime scene also did not match the accused.
.....
Kennedy said jurors might conclude that Muncey's blood found on House's pants may have inadvertently spilled there during the autopsy or through mishandling by police at the crime scene.
District Attorney Paul Phillips wrote in his petition this week that he still believes House could have been convicted again in a new trial, "but the new evidence (including the forensic examinations) raises a reasonable doubt that he acted alone and the possibility that others were involved in the crime."
Originally posted by TheComte
Sounds like the blood on his pants was a frame job. DNA from under the fingernails, and the semen, did NOT match the accused. I presume it did not match the husband's either.
Originally posted by Retseh
You know, I actually wanted this to be a "clean" type of innocence for this guy, but the more I read, the more it looks like he really did kill her, possibly in collusion with the husband who was his friend.