Luis Lorenzo Vargas

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Charge:	Rape
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	17.33
Year Crime:	1998
Year Convicted:	1999
Year Cleared:	2015
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	California
County or Region of Crime:	Los Angeles
City of Crime:	Los Angeles
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Luis Lorenzo Vargas was wrongly convicted in 1999 of three sexual assaults in Los Angeles, California. Vargas' prosecution and conviction by a jury was based on his identification by the victims. Vargas' alibi defense was that he was at work at time of at least two of the rapes. Post-conviction DNA testing excluded Vargas as the assailant in one of the sexual assaults, while implicating a serial rapist known as the 'Teardrop Rapist', whose identify is unknown, but he is credited with committing at least 39 sexual assaults from 1995 to 2013. Based on the new exculpatory evidence the Los Angeles County DA's Office did not oppose a petition Vargas' lawyers filed to overturn his conviction. The DA's office informed the judge that the DA's office “no longer has confidence in the convictions,” noting that the prosecution argued at trial that there were so many similarities among the three crimes that they had to have been committed by the same person. Consequently, if Vargas didn't commit one of the crimes, there was an overwhelming probability he didn't commit the other two. On November 23, 2015 Vargas' petition was granted reversing his convictions."
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	"On November 23, 2015 Vargas convictions were overturned."
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Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	29
Age When Released:	46
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Hispanic
Information Source 1:	"Man in prison for 16 years in 'teardrop rapist' case has conviction tossed, By Marisa Gerber and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2015"
Information Location 1:	http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teardrop-rapist-man-exonerated-prison20151123-story.html
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Luis Lorenzo Vargas

Charge:

Rape

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

17.33

Year Crime:

1998

Year Convicted:

1999

Year Cleared:

2015

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

California

County or Region of Crime:

Los Angeles

City of Crime:

Los Angeles

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"On November 23, 2015 Vargas convictions were overturned."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

29

Age When Released:

46

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Hispanic

Information Source 1:

"Man in prison for 16 years in 'teardrop rapist' case has conviction tossed, By Marisa Gerber and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2015"

Information Location 1:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teardrop-rapist-man-exonerated-prison20151123-story.html

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Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: