Mahatma Gandhi once said, “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” In 1996, Richard Alexander was held in connection to four sexual assaults in South Bend, Indiana. Richard was sentenced to 70 years in prison, but was released after only serving three years. According to innocentproject.org, “Richard was charged with two counts of robbery, two counts of criminal deviate conduct, two counts of attempted rape, two counts of confinement, attempted robbery, rape, burglary and auto theft.” But in 2001, mitochondrial DNA testing showed that Alexander was the assailant in one of the cases, this is when …show more content…
Alexander was charged in four separate incidences but he only went to trial on three of the cases due to been cleared in the fourth case. The fourth case he was cleared in was due to DNA testing, according to innocenceproject.org “the victim and her fiancé both had identified and were certain that Alexander was the perpetrator. The DNA tested in that incident matched the DNA profile of another man.” When at trial, one of the victims identified Alexander as being the assailant. According to the Innocentproject.org “The victim described the perpetrator as being chest free of hair and tattoos. Alexander’s chest had tattoos and was hairy.” Alexander was then convicted of two cases and was then sentenced to 70 years in prison. Alexander was convicted of the remaining two cases, but mitochondrial DNA testing was not accessible at the time of his conviction, but it was later used to clear him of one of the two crimes he was convicted for. Michael Murphy had confessed to the crime and hairs from the scene had concluded that it matched Murphy’s profile and not Alexander’s. Then that made prosecutors think that maybe Alexander hadn’t committed the seconded incident he was convicted of. Even though, the victim and another eye witness named him as the perpetrator. Modus operandi in the second incident was similar to an assault committed by Mark