Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
"Rape, Sodomy and Kidnapping" |
Sentence: |
7 to 14 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
10.5 |
Year Crime: |
1991 |
Year Convicted: |
1992 |
Year Cleared: |
2018 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
New York |
County or Region of Crime: |
New York |
City of Crime: |
New York City |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Van Dyke Perry and Gregory Counts were codefendants convicted of the rape, sodomy, and kidnapping of a woman in Harlem on January 18, 1991. The woman went to a partrol car parked on a Harlem street and told the officers she had been kidnapped at knife point by three black men near her home and raped. She identified Perry and Counts as two of her attackers and they were arrested in January 1991. The third alleged assailant was not arrested. There was no physical evidence linking them to the crime, and semen recovered from the woman didn't match Perry or Counts. The men's defense was the complainant was and unreliable recovering crack addict who gave inconsistent testimony, and she fabricated the story to protect her boyfriend who was wanted for shooting Perry two months before she reported the rape. After their conviction by a jury, Perry and Counts were sentenced to prison. Perry served 11 years in prison before he was released on parole. Counts was released in 2017 after 26 years of imprisonment. In April 2018 the woman told investigators with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office that the rape "never happened." The semen collected from her was DNA tested and the FBI's CODIS DNA database matched it to a man who died in 2011. On May 7, 2018 a Manhattan State Supreme Court judge granted a joint motion filed by the Manhattan DA's Office, the New York Appellate Defender's Reinvestigation Project, and the Innocence Project to vacate the convictions of Perry and Counts based on the new evidence they didn't commit their convicted crimes, and dismissed the charges." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On May 7, 2018 a Manhattan State Supreme Court judge granted a joint motion filed by the Manhattan DA's Office, the New York Appellate Defender's Reinvestigation Project, and the Innocence Project to vacate the convictions of Perry and Counts based on the new evidence they didn't commit their convicted crimes, and dismissed the charges." |
Defendant Aided By: |
Innocence Project (New York) |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
21 |
Age When Released: |
32 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Black |
Information Source 1: |
"26 Years Later, Justice for Men Imprisoned for a Bogus Rape, By Jan Ransom, The New York Times, May 7, 2018" |
Information Location 1: |
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/nyregion/innocence-project-manhattan-rape.html |
Information Source 2: |
"Two Men Accused Of Rape Exonerated 26 Years Later After The Victim Recanted, By Shenequa Golding, Vibe.com, May 8, 2018" |
Information Location 2: |
https://www.vibe.com/2018/05/black-men-exonerated-false-rape-kidnapping-conviction/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=timeline |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org