Judge tosses murder conviction of man in prison for 34 years

A 63-year-old U.S. man who has spent more than half his life in prison for the murder of a 15-year-old girl was released Thursday after newly discovered DNA evidence indicated he was likely not responsible for the girl’s death.

However, while an Indiana, Pennsylvania, judge threw out Fogle’s 1982 conviction, Indiana County District Attorney Patrick Dougherty has until September 14 to decide whether to re-try Fogle.

The Innocence Project, a group that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people, had led calls for new DNA testing in the case.

“I hoped this day would come”.

Indiana County District Attorney Patrick Dougherty was also satisfied. As a result, his murder conviction must be vacated because he was found guilty on the the grounds that there was an underlying felony.

Fogle’s wife, Deb Fogle, said they were “always hopeful” he’d be released.

Dougherty will review other evidence before deciding whether to retry Fogle and announce that decision September 14.

The Innocence Project reports that 72 percent of wrongful convictions involve eyewitness misidentification. The organization said in a statement that “it was only after his fifth interrogation, during which he was placed under hypnosis by someone with no formal training, that he implicated Fogle”. Attorneys from the Innocence Project took on his case to have his conviction vacated.

State police at the time said Kathy’s sister reported that a dark auto had stopped in front of their house in the afternoon and that the driver told Kathy that her brother had been in an accident.

Mr. Fogle, his brother, Dennis, and two other men were arrested in March 1981 in the death of Deann Katherine Long of Cherry Tree, Indiana County.

The original case contained no physical evidence against Fogle but he was convicted on the testimony of jail-house informants who told investigators he had confessed to them.

Charges against the other three co-defendants were dropped for lack of evidence or, in one instance, dismissed for a violation of the state’s “speedy trial” rule.