Prosecutor: "Sutton may deserve another trial"

01/31/2003

By Anna Werner / 11 News

HOUSTON (KHOU) -- An 11 News Defenders investigation has prompted an HPD audit and possible re-testing of evidence in hundreds of criminal cases.

The mother of one young man is hoping the re-testing will set her son free. Last night we told you why our expert believes 16-year-old Josiah Sutton was sent to prison for years on faulty DNA evidence from the HPD crime lab.

Sutton was found guilty of rape and the jury sent him to prison for 25 years. But our DNA expert says the jury was misled by testimony and reports from the HPD crime lab -- information that made it look as if Sutton was guilty.

But what do the jurors who convicted him have to say? Jurors like Ronald Forrester tell us, for them, the DNA evidence was key. "It's mind-boggling to me that they could do something like this," he says.

Forrester is a citizen of Harris County and a juror who's had his faith shaken.

"I mean, you're talking about somebody's life here," he says, "or at least long stretches of it. I now feel sorry for the young man." A man Forrester helped judge.

Josiah Sutton, was arrested at age 16 for the rape of a Houston woman, then prosecuted and tried on the word of the victim and on the basis of Houston Police Department DNA testing. Sutton was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

"This is horrible," Forrester says. "Its really horrible."

Now Forrester says he feels regret.

"It's almost as if I did a crime myself, you know? Because I helped put maybe an innocent person in prison," he says.

So what triggered his doubt? The findings of DNA evidence expert Bill Thompson

"I think we have a clear miscarriage of justice here," Thompson says.

We asked him to review the lab's testing and testimony in the case. And he found mistake after mistake.

"The quality of the work here is just grossly inadequate," Thompson says. "As I look over the test results in a case like this, I think, this is ridiculous!"

For example, Thompson criticizes HPD's claim that Sutton's DNA matched the DNA evidence found at the crime scene.

"His DNA profile was one of thousands of profiles that could have been included in this evidence," Thompson says.

And he found signs that other DNA tests could have been all wrong.

"When this lab tested samples from the rape victim, they tested her sample three different times and got two different DNA profiles," Thompson says. "This is, this is ridiculous."

In fact, Thompson found so many problems that he questions the impression it made on Sutton's jurors.

"I think that it's very clear that the jury was misled," the DNA expert says.

So we decided to see what some of the jurors thought. What, for example, did it say to the jurors when they were told Sutton's DNA was a match?

"That he was guilty," says Lisa Griggs, a Houston businesswoman. "Beyond a reasonable doubt."

In Griggs' mind, the DNA evidence was the smoking gun. And when we shared the findings of our expert, Griggs told us the evidence was not presented in that matter. So it didn't take Griggs long to reach a conclusion.

"I cannot draw a guilty verdict from that ... ," she says. "I think it's unfair to Mr. Sutton."

And juror Forrester believes there's even more at stake.

"In this country, we think a person is innocent until proven guilty," he says. "And for the proof we got to be flawed, that upsets me very badly and also upsets my faith in the system! ... I think there'd be grounds for dismissing the case and freeing the young man."

Nonetheless, the prosecutor who argued the case still believes justice was served.

"Josiah Sutton is guilty and there's nothing wrong with his conviction." says Joe Ownby of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

When we told him of the jurors' new doubts about their verdict, he concluded, "I don't think they can say that ... I don't think anybody can say that because it's just not logical."

"Would the result have been different than if we had no DNA at all?" Ownby asks. "No one can say that."

So do the HPD lab's work and the findings of our expert concern him?

"Of course it raises a concern," Ownby says. "I mean, right now, we're in a period of extreme concern about every test that HPD had done."

In fact, Ownby said, "as soon as I heard that there were problems with HPD testing, this was the first case that came to mind."

Finally, the prosecutor makes an admission and a promise.

"Josiah Sutton may deserve another trial," he said, "at which time I will convict him again."

But juror Ronald Forrester said he'd had enough.

"I mean, I was so convinced of my duty because I thought that what they were doing was right and just," he says. "It's not just -- then, I can't be a part of it! If it's gonna be a travesty? I don't think so."