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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder and Robbery |
Sentence: |
55 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
8 |
Year Crime: |
2002 |
Year Convicted: |
2005 |
Year Cleared: |
2012 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Indiana |
County or Region of Crime: |
Elkhart |
City of Crime: |
Elkhart |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Lana Canen was wrongly convicted on August 10, 2005 as an accomplice in the robbery and murder of 94-year-old Helen Sailor in her Elkhart, Indiana apartment on the early morning of November 29, 2002. Ms. Sailor's family had dropped her off at her apartment just hours earlier after she spent Thanksgiving day with them. Canen was arrested on September 3, 2004 and insisted she had nothing to do with the crime. Key evidence linking Canen to the crime was the testimony of Elkhart County Sheriff Department Detective Dennis Chapman that a fingerprint on a prescription container in Ms. Sailor's apartment matched the little finger on Canen's left hand. She was alleged to be the accomplice of Andrew Royer in robbing Ms. Sailor and that Royer killed her during the robbery. Both Canen and Royer were sentenced to 55 years in prison after a jury convicted them of Ms. Sailor's murder. After Canen's conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, her lawyer Cara Wieneke conducted a post-conviction investigation that included sending the fingerprint evidence Kathleen Bright-Birnbaum, an expert fingerprint examiner at Arizona-based Desert Forensics. Bright-Birnbaum determined the fingerprint on the container didn't match Canen's fingerprints. Based on the new evidence Canen filed a motion for a new trial. During an evidentiary hearing on August 16, 2012, Det. Chapman admitted that when he rechecked the fingerprints after Canen filed her motion he discovered they didn't match. In a written statement Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill admitted it is “reasonable to believe that the jury relied upon Detective Chapman’s testimony in considering the evidence against her.” Canen's motion for a new trial was granted on October 12, 2012 by an Elkhart County Circuit Court judge. In a motion unopposed by the prosecution, Canen's indictment was dismissed and she was released on November 1, 2012. The 53-year-old Canen had been wrongly incarcerated for 8 years and 2 months after her arrest on September 3, 2004. Her alleged accomplice Royer remained imprisoned because there was no new evidence he didn't commit the crime. Attorney Wieneke told a reporter with The Elkhart Truth after the evidentiary hearing that Canen always maintained her innocence, which led her to look into the fingerprints. Wieneke said, "“I think a lot of people think that many clients claim their innocence but there really aren’t that many that do, and so when she continued to maintain her innocence throughout and even when I met with her, it made me think maybe there’s something there.” It was reported that Chapman was disciplined for his erroneous fingerprint examination and trial testimony, but he wasn't fired and as of Lana Canen's release from custody he continued working at the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Erroneous testimony by Elkhart County Sheriff Department Detective Dennis Chapman that a fingerprint on a prescription container in Ms. Sailor's apartment matched the little finger on Canen's left hand. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Canen's motion for a new trial was granted on October 12, 2012 by an Elkhart County Circuit Court judge. In a motion unopposed by the prosecution, Canen's indictment was dismissed and she was released on November 1, 2012. " |
Defendant Aided By: |
Attorney Cara Wieneke |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
45 |
Age When Released: |
53 |
Sex: |
Female |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Woman inmate freed over Indiana detective's error, Associated Press storyh, The Seattle Times, November 3, 2012" |
Information Location 1: |
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019600036_printerror04.html |
Information Source 2: |
"Elkhart woman formerly convicted of murder released from prison, By Sharon Hernandez (staff), The Elkhart Truth, November 3, 2012" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.etruth.com/article/20121103/NEWS05/711039939 |
Information Source 3: |
"Elkhart woman’s conviction vacated, By Sharon Hernandez (staff), The Elkhart Truth, October 25, 2012" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.etruth.com/article/20121025/NEWS05/710259923 |
Information Source 4: |
"Attorney re-evaluated evidence in Elkhart murder case, By Sharon Hernandez (staff), The Elkhart Truth, October 3, 2012" |
Information Location 4: |
http://etruth.com/article/20121003/NEWS05/710039945 |
Information Source 5: |
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Information Location 5: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org