D.C. man exonerated in 1982 rape and murder; DNA reveals FBI error in conviction

A D.C. Superior Court judge concluded Monday that DNA evidence exonerates a man who spent 26years in prison in the 1982 killing of a Washington woman.

Kevin Martins case marks the fifth time in as many years that federal prosecutors in the District have acknowledged that errors by an elite FBI forensic unit had led to a conviction that should be overturned.

U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. joined defense calls to vacate Martins conviction and declare him innocent of the attack on Ursula C. Brown. Machen cited DNA evidence that contradicts a previous finding by forensic experts linking Martin to a hair collected at the crime scene.

Martin, who had long professed his innocence in the killing, left the D.C. courthouse with his name cleared. He was paroled in 2009 and lives in San Francisco.

I am free at last. I am humbled. I never gave up, Martin said, hugging and high-fiving his attorneys. Martins younger sister, his fiancee, his 6-year-old niece and other family members gathered around.

Five men wrongly convicted and imprisoned in the 1989 beating and rape of a Central Park jogger have agreed to settle with New York City for about $40 million. The proposed settlement would give the "Central Park Five" about $1 million for each year of imprisonment. Here are seven other notable exoneration cases. (Kiratiana Freelon, Natalie Jennings and Tom LeGro/The Washington Post)

I just want to live, said Martin, 50.

The hearing came as Machens office nears the end of a 21/ 2-year review of all local convictions involving FBI hair matches that was launched after demands by the D.C. Public Defender Service. Since 2009, the service has cleared four other men convicted by such matches.

And the troubling problems exposed in the FBI labs methods have led the FBI and Justice Department to undertake a nationwide review of more than 2,100 convictions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Martins is the first wrongful conviction uncovered by prosecutors in the District review, and they said it is the only problem case they have found. The public defenders office praised the effort to exonerate Martin but criticized the U.S. attorneys offices review as secretive and the disclosure of the results as incomplete and overdue.

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D.C. man exonerated in 1982 rape and murder; DNA reveals FBI error in conviction