Richard Lapointe

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Charge:	Murder and Rape
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	26
Year Crime:	1989
Year Convicted:	1992
Year Cleared:	2015
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Connecticut
County or Region of Crime:	Hartford
City of Crime:	Manchester
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Richard Lapointe was wrongly convicted in 1992 of the rape and murder of his then wife's 88-year-old granndmother in her Manchester, Connecticut apartment in 1987. Lapointe's conviction by a jury was based on his confession that he retracted as coerced. Lapointe has Dandy-Walker syndrome, a congenital brain malformation that results in hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. In 1999 Centurion Ministries began investigating Lapointe's case. In March 2015 the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed Lapointe's conviction and ordered a new trial. On April 10, 2015 Lapointe was released on bond pending the prosecution's decision on whether to retry him. After Lapointe's release, the prosecution arranged DNA tests of crime scene evidence, and every test excluded Lapointe as a suspect. On October 2, 2015 a judge granted Hartford County State's Attorney Gail Hardy's motion to dismiss the charges against Lapointe. During that hearing prosecutor David Zagaja read a statement into the court record, explaining that the prosecution continues to believe Lapointe was properly convicted and the decision not to prosecute should not be construed as a declaration of his innocence. Zagaja stated, "This is not an exoneration by the State.""
Conviction Caused By:	False confession coerced by the police.
Innocence Proved By:	"On October 2, 2015 a judge granted Hartford County State's Attorney Gail Hardy's motion to dismiss the charges against Lapointe."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	46
Age When Released:	69
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"State Won't Retry Richard Lapointe, By Edmund H. Mahony (reporter), Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), October 2, 2015"
Information Location 1:	http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-richard-lapointe-hearing-on-whether-to-retry-20151002-story.html
Information Source 2:	"Charges tossed against man accused of killing wife's grandma, By Pat Eaton-Robb (Associated Press), Newsday (New York, NY), October 2, 2015"
Information Location 2:	https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/judge-dismisses-charges-against-richard-lapointe-1.10916080
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Richard Lapointe

Charge:

Murder and Rape

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

26

Year Crime:

1989

Year Convicted:

1992

Year Cleared:

2015

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Connecticut

County or Region of Crime:

Hartford

City of Crime:

Manchester

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

False confession coerced by the police.

Innocence Proved By:

"On October 2, 2015 a judge granted Hartford County State's Attorney Gail Hardy's motion to dismiss the charges against Lapointe."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

46

Age When Released:

69

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"State Won't Retry Richard Lapointe, By Edmund H. Mahony (reporter), Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), October 2, 2015"

Information Location 1:

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-richard-lapointe-hearing-on-whether-to-retry-20151002-story.html

Information Source 2:

"Charges tossed against man accused of killing wife's grandma, By Pat Eaton-Robb (Associated Press), Newsday (New York, NY), October 2, 2015"

Information Location 2:

https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/judge-dismisses-charges-against-richard-lapointe-1.10916080

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Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

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