A convicted rapist from Harris County will be given a new trial for his crimes based on the destruction of DNA evidence by the Houston police crime lab. Lawrence J. Napper was arrested for the raping a six year old boy in 2001 after already having three rape convictions on his record. When the child was asked to identify Napper in a line up, he was able to, but when he was asked to do so in the courtroom, he was unable to identify the suspect.
DNA evidence was said to have pointed to Napper’s guilt, but his court-appointed defense attorney was unable to independently test the evidence because the Houston police had used the entire sample in their lab. While it seems the crime analysts had a lack of understanding of DNA evidence, his attorney at the time was not knowledgeable enough about the subject to thoroughly cross examine the lab technicians. Napper was sentenced to life in prison without parole, but has continued to maintain his innocence. His chance at a new trial may exonerate him for the crime.
Napper’s current Houston criminal lawyer, BobWicoff said, “This is what we had hoped for, Judge Barr recognized the injustice of a crime lab destroying the only available forensic evidence in the case before Napper was even arrested, much less being given an attorney or his own expert.”
To read more, see the article in the Houston Chronicle. Image via ynse [Flickr]