Twenty
years after a jury convicted James L. Owens of a murder he said he
didn't commit, prosecutors today dropped all charges against him in his
retrial, making him the seventh person in Maryland to be ordered freed
because of DNA evidence.
The key to Owens' freedom was a sperm sample taken from the victim 20
years ago, before DNA testing was available, that was saved by the
medical examiner's office and tested in 2006. The new analysis showed
the genetic material didn't come from Owens or his co-defendant, James
Thompson Jr., who testified two decades ago that he was present when
Owens raped and killed Colleen Williar, 24, in her bed in Southeast
Baltimore.
Standing in handcuffs, jeans and a light blue corrections shirt, Owens,
43, expressed no emotion as Baltimore Assistant State's Attorney Mark
P. Cohen explained his decision to drop the charges.
Five witnesses, including two jailhouse informants, were dead.
Thompson, who recanted his testimony almost immediately after the 1988
trial and whose case is on appeal, was refusing to testify. And
Baltimore police destroyed the other physical evidence in the case,
including the alleged murder weapon and pubic hair collected from the
victim's body because the case had been closed so long ago.
The victim's mother, Carolyn Case, cried as Cohen announced he was
dropping the charges. She said the victim's brother had been one of the
people to discover Williar's nude body, stabbed and beaten in her
O'Donnell Heights rowhouse Aug. 2, 1987. She said he later committed
suicide.
"They're both as guilty as can be," Case, 65, said, referring to Owens
and Thompson. "Everyone has forgotten about my daughter. ... I have a
life sentence."
Cohen initially objected to the release of the sperm sample for
testing, but he joined the defense's request for reconsideration after
the results came back. Owens, the first person sentenced under the
state's life without the possibility of parole statute, remained locked
up in the meantime.
At about 11 a.m. today, Owens' attorney, Stephen B. Mercer, entered a
prisoner holding area inside the courthouse, and speaking through metal
bars, told Owens that he would be freed. Mercer said he replied, "Thank
you." Owens was released about 5 p.m.
"That's all he could say," Mercer said. "He has been in jail for 20 years for a crime he didn't commit."
Today, Cohen declined to say whether he believed Owens was innocent. He
also declined to say whether he would agree to a new trial for
Thompson, 49, who is serving a life sentence, because his appeal is
pending before the state's highest court.
Owens' and Thompson's attorneys say that the men were convicted on a
false confession, and unreliable science and jailhouse informants.
Thompson, who worked at a gas station, first appeared as a witness in
the case. He had come forward with the murder weapon, a switchblade
knife, after police posted a $1,000 reward for information.
During questioning, police accused him of participating in the crime,
and to save himself, he fingered Owens, Thompson's attorney, Suzanne
Drouet, told The Sun in 2006. But while on the witness stand, Thompson
- to the defense's surprise - provided information putting him at the
scene of the crime.
Mercer said police coerced Thompson's statement by implying that he was
in severe trouble but that he could avoid charges by helping convict
Owens.
After Owens' trial, however, Thompson was charged. A key piece of
evidence at his trial was forensic testimony matching pubic hairs found
at the scene to Thompson. However, Cohen acknowledged today that the
analysis done in the late 1980s is no longer considered reliable enough
to match a hair to a specific person.
Mercer said that the sperm sample has been used to clear one other man
detectives identified as a suspect early in the investigation but that
it could not be used to positively identify the killer.
"The profile is of the paternal DNA, which is passed from father to son
like a last name," Mercer said. "It's only going to put the perpetrator
within a paternal line. It's useful to exclude suspects but not include
them."
Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis refused to release Owens
directly from the courtroom and instead required him to go through the
standard procedure. Mercer said that Owens would not be available for
comment today and that Owens' sister, who attended the hearing,
declined to comment.
