Wisconsin Man Freed After 23 Years In Prison Because Of Faulty Bite-Mark Analysis, Still Faces 1st Degree Homicide Charges
A Wisconsin man, convicted in 1984 of the murder of a 63 year old woman, has been freed from prison after 23 years. A judge vacated the sentence after the Wisconsin Innocence Project convinced the judge that the DNA and bite-mark analysis did not match the evidence at the crime scene. However, the Milwaukee County District Attorney has not yet given up.
According to the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter:
Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Norman Gahn didn't oppose his release, although he said Friday he has six months to decide whether to retry him. Gahn wouldn't elaborate. District Attorney said in a statement that Stinson's conviction was not wrongful, and that he was convicted based on "state-of-the-art scientific evidence available at the time of his trial."
"The question today is whether there is newly discovered evidence in this case to warrant a new trial, and we agree that such evidence exists," Chisholm said. The statement did not describe the nature of the evidence. Stinson was convicted in 1985 in the murder of a 63-year-old Milwaukee woman the previous year. Ione F. Cyshosz was last seen by a friend who dropped her at her home after playing bingo. Her near-naked body was found the next morning, her head bloody and beaten and a number of bite marks on her torso. A police officer arrested Stinson in the area after saying the teeth of the then-21-year-old matched the bite marks.
At the trial, two forensic odontologists testified that Stinson's teeth were a match, even though Stinson was apparently missing a tooth in a place where the bite marks indicated a tooth, Lichstein, said. He said he didn't know why that didn't cast doubt on the case against Stinson at the beginning, but newer technology indicated there was no match."Every piece of evidence in the case points away from him," Byron Lichstein (Attorney for the Wisconsin Innocence Project) said. "He has a very powerful claim of innocence."
Bite mark identification is becoming an increasingly interesting phenomenon in wrongful conviction law. The Innocence Project reports that eight people in five states have had convictions overturned from faulty bite-mark analysis. Still, many odontologists insist that, if applied properly, bite-mark analyisis is reliable scientific evidence.
It is clear how a criminal conviction can be attacked through the means of faulty bite-mark analysis. However, any subsequent lawsuit against police or a municipality for this type of wrongful conviction should be hard to prove. Bite-mark analysis was deemed wholly reliable at the time, and many experts still deem it as reliable. Therefore, it surely should give police and prosecutors probable cause to arrest and prosecute which would bar any civil claim.
