On December 30th, 1984, a woman was dragged, beaten, and raped at a bus stop in Alexandria, Virginia. She described her attacker as a “tall, thin, African-American man wearing a green jacket”. A man who matched this description was soon apprehended by police. This man, Phillip Leon Thurman, claimed to be on his way home to his family at the time. Later, during his jury trial, Thurman was identified by the victim and another witness as the attacker. Additionally, a Virginia state crime lab analyst, Mary Jane Burton, used the DNA found in the victim’s underwear to determine that the attacker’s blood type was Type B – the same blood type as Thurman and also 20% of all African-American men. Without the technology we have today, this was enough to convict Phillip Leon Thurman of rape, abduction, and assault and he was sentenced to thirty-one years in prison.
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While he was in prison, he wrote to countless lawyers, judges, and organizations. Eventually, the Innocence Project picked up his case after he was released on parole and forced to register as a sex offender and pushed it to be reviewed in hopes that advancements in technology would allow them to prove that it was not Thurman who attacked and raped that woman. Fortunately, Mary Jane Burton had not followed lab policy and maintained the swabs of DNA from Thurman’s case, along with samples of other convicted men, allowing several of them to be
While he was in prison, he wrote to countless lawyers, judges, and organizations. Eventually, the Innocence Project picked up his case after he was released on parole and forced to register as a sex offender and pushed it to be reviewed in hopes that advancements in technology would allow them to prove that it was not Thurman who attacked and raped that woman. Fortunately, Mary Jane Burton had not followed lab policy and maintained the swabs of DNA from Thurman’s case, along with samples of other convicted men, allowing several of them to be