Eyewitness testimony leads to another wrongful conviction, albeit posthumously
About a month later, she was asked to review a photo lineup of possible suspects. Blackburn says she picked out Cole, not knowing the photo was taken when Cole — who had no criminal record — was being questioned by police as a possible witness in an unrelated theft case.
Mallin later identified Cole in a physical lineup. Her identification, jury foreman Walter Lupton says, was among the strongest evidence against Cole at trial.
Lupton, who hadn't known DNA testing implicated Johnson or that Cole died in prison, says the knowledge leaves "an empty spot in my life."
Mallin, meanwhile, had "kind of put the whole thing behind me." Then, last May, she was notified by the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office that DNA testing had eliminated Cole as the attacker and that he had died in prison.
"I was really shocked," says Mallin, who has joined Cole's family in their effort to exonerate him and plans to appear at the hearing. "Timothy is as much a victim as me."
Nationally, the Innocence Project, which attempts to prove innocence claims using DNA, says misidentification is the "single greatest cause of wrongful conviction." Of the 232 exonerations involving DNA evidence, about 75% involved some form of misidentification, the New York City-based group reports.
Blackburn hopes the case will spur a new state law allowing stronger challenges to witness identification.
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-03-exoneration_N.htm