This article first appeared in the Journal Sentinel on May 10, 2010.

Reporting by Tom Kertscher.

Group that cleared murder suspect says it has identified real killer

The wrongful conviction of a man who served 23 years in prison for a 1984 homicide may have helped a different man remain free to commit another homicide in 1991.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project, which last year freed Robert Lee Stinson from prison in the 1984 murder, announced Monday it had developed DNA evidence identifying a new suspect in the slaying.

The Innocence Project did not name the new suspect. But it is believed that he has been in prison since 1992 for having committed another homicide in Milwaukee County in 1991.

Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern also would not identify the suspect but said Monday he expects to decide soon whether to file charges him against him in the '84 homicide.

Lovern said that although scientific evidence at the time strongly indicated Stinson's guilt, new scientific techniques have since discredited that analysis and are much more precise in identifying suspects.

Stinson was found guilty by a jury in January 1985 of the 1984 stabbing death of his Milwaukee neighbor, Ione Cychosz, 62.

Then 20, Stinson was sentenced to life in prison.

In January 2009, a judge freed Stinson from prison after the Innocence Project, a program of the University of Wisconsin Law School, raised doubts about bite-mark evidence that was crucial in Stinson's trial....for the full article click here.

Submitted by Erin Syth on May 20, 2010

This article appears in the categories: In the Media