Man Spent 25 Years In Prison On Mistaken Rape Conviction Receives $6.3 Million

By Anna Deem in News on Jun 26, 2010 6:00PM

Jerry Miller, who spent 25 years in prison for a rape that he did not commit, will receive a $6.3 million settlement from the City Council committee. Miller was convicted when a Chicago Police crime lab technician allegedly withheld important evidence, and he ended up being exonerated by DNA testing. In 1981, Miller--a 23-year-old cook with no criminal record--was "accused of kidnapping, raping, and robbing a 44-year-old woman in a Rush Street parking garage," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Parking garage attendants identified Miller as the attacker, even though the victim wasn't sure. DNA samples from the victim's slip proved to be a match to serial rapist Robert Weeks. In 2007, the Cook County state's attorney's office uncovered the DNA testing that had not been available at the time of crime, and Miller's conviction was turned over in April 2007, one year after his release from prison.

Miller filed a lawsuit that claimed he should have been exonerated in 1982 through DNA blood type testing, when the results of a semen sample from the victim's slip revealed that the assailant had Type O blood--just like Weeks--and Miller has Type B. Miller's attorney, John Stainthorp, spoke about the wrongdoing, "The charges should have been dropped in 1982 when [Chicago Police crime lab technician Raymond ] Lenz did his testing. Instead, he gave a report that said the evidence was inconclusive. It was intentional wrongdoing. It was a failure to report accurate scientific conclusions," he said to the Sun-Times.