Jun 18 2008
Dallas D.A. Locates Real Perpetrator in McGowan Rape Case
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced yesterday that they have located the man who committed the rape that Thomas McGowan was initially convicted of committing. McGowan was released from incarceration in April when DNA testing proved he had been wrongfully convicted of the crime. He was officially exonerated last week when the Court of Criminal Appeals granted his writ of habeas corpus. Steve McGonigle of the Dallas Morning News reports:
DNA evidence that recently exonerated one man of a 1985 sexual assault has helped identify a prison inmate who confessed to the crime, the Dallas County district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.
Kenneth Wayne Woodson gave investigators an audiotaped statement last week in which he admitted raping a 19-year-old Richardson woman in her apartment, Assistant District Attorney Mike Ware said.
Prosecutors were led to Mr. Woodson by a match of his genetic profile in CODIS, the state’s DNA database, to physical evidence from the May 7, 1985, rape.
Of the 17 DNA exoneration cases in Dallas County since 2001, this is at least the fifth time genetic testing has also identified the real perpetrator.
Click here to read the rest of the Dallas Morning News article.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.