Inside Report for July 10, 2009

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 10, 2009 - Page: 9B

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Gene Bibbins, Michael Williams and Rickey Johnson were exonerated by DNA evidence after spending a combined 65 years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for rapes they didn’t commit.

Kenneth Reed Jr., of Baton Rouge, would like to add his name to that list.

Reed, 38, is serving a life sentence at Angola for the 1991 aggravated rape of a 16-year-old girl. An aggravated rape conviction carries a mandatory life term.

Reed contends DNA testing, which was not available at the time of the rape, would clear him.

The East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office opposes the testing in Reed’s case, asserting he isn’t entitled to it.

Prosecutors also maintain DNA is irrelevant. Not only did Reed rape the woman, they contend, he also held her down while his co-defendant raped her.

That made him a principal to the co-defendant’s attack, they say.

State District Judge Bonnie Jackson ordered the tests in January, prompting prosecutors to take their case to the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal, where the matter is pending.

• Bibbins, of Baton Rouge, was convicted in 1988 of the aggravated rape of a 13-year-old girl, but state District Judge Mike Erwin overturned the conviction in early 2003 after DNA testing performed the previous fall showed Bibbins was not the rapist. Bibbins spent 16 years at Angola for the rape.
• Williams, of Chatham, was found guilty in 1981 of the aggravated rape of a 22-year-old woman who had tutored him, but he was freed in 2005 after DNA evidence cleared him. Williams spent 24 years at Angola for the rape.
• Johnson, of Leesville, was found guilty in the 1982 aggravated rape of a 22-year-old woman, but he was released last year after DNA testing conclusively excluded him as the rapist. Johnson spent 25 years at Angola for the rape.

Bibbins, Williams, Johnson and Reed were identified by the victims in their respective trials as their assailants.

“Cases, such as Bibbins’, Williams’, Johnson’s and Mr. Reed’s, in which the conviction rests largely — if not exclusively — on eyewitness identification testimony, are paradigmatic cases for post-conviction DNA testing,’’ argues Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with the Innocence Project, of New York, in legal papers filed at the 1st Circuit in Reed’s case.

The Innocence Project also handled the post-conviction DNA testing issues in Bibbins’, Williams’ and Johnson’s cases.

“The fallibility of eyewitness identifications, particularly in situations where the witness was under intense stress, has been well documented,’’ Potkin maintains.