Timothy Durham

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Charge:	Rape and Robbery (including burglary)
Sentence:	"Life Imprisonment (3,200 years)"
Years Imprisoned:	5
Year Crime:	1991
Year Convicted:	1993
Year Cleared:	1997
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Oklahoma
County or Region of Crime:	Tulsa
City of Crime:	Tulsa
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Timothy Durham was wrongly convicted in 1993 of raping a child and robbery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On May 31, 1991 eleven-year-old, Molly M. was home alone after the last day of school. Around 10:30 a.m. a man appeared at Molly’s back door claiming he was there to do some yard work. When Molly turned to look at the clock to see what time her parents were expected home the man entered and pounced on Molly. The intruder carried Molly down into the basement and proceeded to rape and assault her for roughly thirty minutes. The Tulsa, Oklahoma police investigation went cold quickly. After ten weeks no solids leads surfaced. Then, in January 1992 Tulsa police arrested Timothy Durham, a recovering drug and alcohol user with a record of petty crimes. The district attorney’s office proceeded with the prosecution against Durham even though at least eleven witnesses could put him in Dallas, 257 miles from Tulsa, around the time of the attack. The prosecution went forward based on three pieces of evidence against Durham: Molly's eyewitness identification, testimony that Durham’s hair was microscopically similar to hair found at the crime scene, and a DNA test (DQ-alpha) that reportedly identified Durham’s genotype matched that of semen recovered from the crime. The hair technician testified about a unique straightening characteristic in one of the Caucasoid head hairs recovered from the crime. The technician testified Durham’s head hair exhibited the same straightening characteristic. During direct examination, the technician testified that she had never had an occurrence like this before when examining Caucasoid hair—implying that the unknown hair and Durham’s matched. The technician testified during cross-examination that no journal articles or research existed regarding the unique straightening characteristic identified by her. After the jury convicted Durham he was sentenced him to 3,320 years in prison. The Innocence Project of Cardozo Law School became involved in Durham's case and sperm recovered from the victim was DNA tested. The results conclusively excluded him as the source of the sperm, and in 1997 Durham's conviction was reversed, the charges dismissed, and he was released from prison. Durham was not awarded compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, however, a lawuit for injuries inflicted by inmates while he was imprisoned was settled for $50,000."
Conviction Caused By:	"Erroneous expert testimony that a hair recovered from the crime scene matched Durham, erroneous DNA testimony, and mistaken eyewitness identification by the victim."
Innocence Proved By:	DNA testing of sperm recovered from the victim excluded Durham as the source.
Defendant Aided By:	The Innocence Project of Cardozo Law School
Compensation Awarded:	Claim denied by State of Oklahoma.
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	29
Age When Released:	35
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"William C. Thompson, Franco Taroni, and Colin G. G. Aitken, “How the Probability of a False Positive Affects the Value of DNA Evidence,” J Forensic Sci, 2003 Jan, Vol. 48, No. 1, 47-54, at 48."
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Timothy Durham

Charge:

Rape and Robbery (including burglary)

Sentence:

"Life Imprisonment (3,200 years)"

Years Imprisoned:

5

Year Crime:

1991

Year Convicted:

1993

Year Cleared:

1997

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Oklahoma

County or Region of Crime:

Tulsa

City of Crime:

Tulsa

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

"Erroneous expert testimony that a hair recovered from the crime scene matched Durham, erroneous DNA testimony, and mistaken eyewitness identification by the victim."

Innocence Proved By:

DNA testing of sperm recovered from the victim excluded Durham as the source.

Defendant Aided By:

The Innocence Project of Cardozo Law School

Compensation Awarded:

Claim denied by State of Oklahoma.

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

29

Age When Released:

35

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"William C. Thompson, Franco Taroni, and Colin G. G. Aitken, “How the Probability of a False Positive Affects the Value of DNA Evidence,” J Forensic Sci, 2003 Jan, Vol. 48, No. 1, 47-54, at 48."

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