Man Wrongfully Convicted of Rape is Released After DNA Testing

Last month, a Chicago man who was serving 20-years in prison for a rape conviction was granted release after DNA tests proved he did not commit the crime.

“That’s not justice,” said the Cook County Circuit Judge Stanley Sacks who was handling the case of Marlon Pendleton. “It’s an injustice.”

Forty-nine year old Pendleton was shocked by the news of his release because of the effects that the wrongful imprisonment had on his life.

“He’s been in prison for over a dozen years,” said his attorney Karen Daniel. “He’s lost a huge chunk of his life, he’s lost his family. He doesn’t have any money, he doesn’t have a job. It’s not a happy day for Marlon Pendleton.”

In 1992, Pendleton was convicted of rape when a police crime lab analyst claimed there was too little evidence at the scene of the crime to conduct DNA tests. This lab analyst has been linked to several other wrongful convictions in the last decade.

Pendleton maintained his innocence from the very beginning. After serving 12 years of his 20-year sentence, proper DNA tests finally ruled him out as the rapist.

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