June 7, 2013 is a day Jerry Lee Jenkins will always
remember. It was the day he joined over
three hundred other men and women who were exonerated with the use of
post-conviction DNA testing. Mr. Jenkins
had been fighting to prove his innocence since he was wrongfully convicted in
1987 for the brutal rape of a young woman in Waldorf, Maryland. On the evening of February 6, 1986 the woman,
a real estate agent, was at a model home when a man came in, concealed his face
with a stocking and pulled a knife on her.
The man covered the woman’s face and proceeded to rape her. The woman was able to get a partial glance at
his face. The woman would later admit at
a photo lineup with Mr. Jenkins and to the jury that Mr. Jenkins looked like
the man who attacked her but she was not sure it was him. An expert from the FBI testified at trial that
Mr. Jenkins was within four percent of the population that could have
contributed to the biological material left at the crime, which is still a
large pool of possible offenders. Mr.
Jenkins was convicted regardless.
