The Utah Attorney General’s office has rec­om­mend­ed that Bruce Dallas Goodman’s mur­der con­vic­tion be set aside as a result of new DNA tests that have con­firmed Goodman’s stead­fast claims of inno­cence. Goodman was con­vict­ed in 1984 for the mur­der of his girl­friend, Sherry Ann Fales, who was raped, sodom­ized, beat­en to death and aban­doned off an inter­state exit, a crime that qual­i­fied for the death penal­ty. Since his arrest, Goodman has main­tained that he did not mur­der Fales, and the state’s case against him was large­ly cir­cum­stan­tial. Last year, the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center exam­ined DNA evi­dence tak­en from the scene of the crime and the Center’s find­ings exclud­ed Goodman as the mur­der­er. Instead, the DNA sam­ples point­ed to two men, nei­ther of them iden­ti­fi­able. Following the test­ing, Josh Bowland, an attor­ney with the Innocence Center, peti­tioned to vacate Goodman’s con­vic­tion based on the new evi­dence. Based on the Attorney General’s rec­om­men­da­tion, Goodman is expect­ed to be released after 19 years in prison. (Associated Press, October 15, 2004) See Innocence.

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