100^th DEATH ROW EXONEREE FREED IN ARIZONA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 9, 2002 CONTACT: BRENDA BOWSER
(202) 293‑6970
bbowser@​deathpenaltyinfo.​org

100^th DEATH ROW EXONEREE FREED IN ARIZONA

DNA evi­dence vin­di­cates man wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of 1991 murder

WASHINGTON, DC — Ray Krone is the 100^th inno­cent per­son con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der to walk free from prison since 1973, accord­ing to an announce­ment made today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Krone — who main­tained his inno­cence through­out his incar­cer­a­tion — was sen­tenced to death in 1992 for the mur­der of Kim Ancona, a Phoenix cock­tail wait­ress. He spent three years on Arizona’s death row before his first con­vic­tion was over­turned. He was retried and sen­tenced to life in prison in 1996.

On Monday, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt asked for Krone’s release after DNA evi­dence tak­en from the vic­tim vin­di­cat­ed him of the 1991 mur­der. Prosecutors told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Alfred Fenzel that the chances are 1.3 quadrillion to one that the DNA found on the vic­tim’s cloth­ing came from anoth­er inmate cur­rent­ly serv­ing time in Arizona’s Florence prison.

Krone’s orig­i­nal cap­i­tal con­vic­tion was pri­mar­i­ly based on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence, includ­ing inac­cu­rate expert tes­ti­mo­ny claim­ing that bite marks on the vic­tim matched Krone’s dis­tin­guish­ing den­tal pat­tern. During his first tri­al, DNA evi­dence was not pre­sent­ed to the jury and test results obtained for Krone’s sec­ond tri­al were incon­clu­sive. Last year, defense attor­ney Alan Simpson secured a court order to test the phys­i­cal evi­dence using the lat­est DNA tech­nol­o­gy. It was this test that vin­di­cat­ed Krone and was the basis for his release from prison on Monday, April 8.

“This 100^th exon­er­a­tion should be a turn­ing point in our eval­u­a­tion of the death penal­ty,” said Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. ​“This is a wake-up call for all who believe that only the guilty are sen­tenced to death. These 100 cas­es have sure­ly taught us that states are tak­ing unrea­son­able risks with innocent lives.”

Krone is the sec­ond death row exoneree this year, and the 12^th DNA exon­er­a­tion in the nation since 1993. The first 2002 exoneree was Juan Melendez, a Florida man who spent near­ly two decades on death row before a judge ordered his release. The court deter­mined that pros­e­cu­tors in Melendez’s orig­i­nal tri­al with­held crit­i­cal evi­dence, there­by under­min­ing con­fi­dence in the original verdict.

In its 2001 Year End Report issued in December, DPIC not­ed that five inmates were freed from death row in 2001. These exon­er­a­tions, as well as rev­e­la­tions from state and inde­pen­dent stud­ies show­ing unfair­ness in the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, have con­tributed to a con­tin­u­ing decline in sup­port for the death penal­ty. The num­ber of exe­cu­tions, death sen­tences, and the size of death row have all decreased recent­ly. Wrongful con­vic­tions have also caused a num­ber of for­mer pro­po­nents of the death penal­ty to ques­tion its value.

Krone’s attornies are Alan Simpson, who may be reached by call­ing (602) 222‑4878, and Christopher Plourd at (619) 708‑9779. # # #