Cudos to the Connecticut Innocence Project
Posted By Administrator on August 5, 2009
The Connecticut Innocence Project has done it again. Today, it was announced that Mark Ireland, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for a 1986 rape and murder that DNA evidence now shows he could not have committed, was freed. Although Judge Richard Damiani granted him a new trial, Prosecutors are expected to drop the charges. Ireland was convicted in 1989.
Since 2006, the Connecticut Innocence Project has successfully helped to free two men after they were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Miguel Roman was convicted of murdering his 17-year-old pregnant ex-girlfriend, based on circumstantial evidence and testimony from a jailhouse informant. Roman was interrogated mostly in English, a language he didn’t speak. His trial proceeded in English. Despite Roman’s continuous claims of innocence, he was convicted in 1990.
James Calvin Tillman was convicted in 1989 of kidnapping, beating, robbing and raping a 26-year-old woman. DNA testing was performed in 1990 on evidence collected during the investigation but DNA testing at the time was not advanced enough to get a conclusive result.
The Connecticut Innocence Project is a division of Public Defender Services for the State of Connecticut.
UPDATE:
On Wednesday, August 19, 2009, Ireland appeared in New Haven Superior Court. Judge Richard Damiani dismissed the charges against him. New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington agreed with the dismissal of the charges against Ireland and said there was no chance he would be recharged.
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