Chicago man is 200th in U.S. freed by DNA evidence

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DNA milestone: Chicago man is 200th in U.S. freed by evidence

Convictions reversed, flaws in system revealed

By Robert Tanner
Associated Press
April 24, 2007

DNA evidence cleared its 200th person Monday, another milestone for a technology that not only has reversed convictions but has also prompted a more critical look at flaws in the justice system -- from crime lab work to the way arson cases are investigated.

Jerry Miller served 25 years for a rape conviction and had been paroled when DNA tests showed he could not have been the man who attacked a woman in a Chicago parking garage.

It took 13 years to reach the first 100 DNA exonerations but just five to double that number.

Advocates for extensive changes in the way cases are investigated and prosecuted see the 200 as the tip of a huge iceberg and use the word "epidemic."

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