A North Carolina Superior Court judge orderd a new tri­al for death row inmate Rex Penland fol­low­ing DNA test­ing that dis­cred­it­ed the state’s case. Penland was con­vict­ed of a rape and mur­der 11 years ago, but DNA test­ing at the time of his tri­al was incon­clu­sive. More recent test­ing was favor­able to Penland and did not place him at the scene of the crime. Penland was con­vict­ed large­ly on the basis of tes­ti­mo­ny from his two nephews who were also involved in the crime. Ken Rose, one of the Penland’s attor­neys, said: ​“I think there are sub­stan­tial ques­tions about whether they got the wrong per­son. We have oth­er evi­dence call­ing into ques­tion the [nephews’] testimony.”

(Associated Press, July 25, 2005). See Innocence.

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