Leonard Callace - Mistaken Witness Identification
Callace, Leonard ; sexual assault; mistaken witness identification
[553:745]; 2nd Dept. 10/31/88; affirmed
"Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution...we find that it was legally sufficient to establish [Callace's] guilt. Moreover...we are satisfied that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence..."
NRE synopsis (by the Innocence Project):
"Leonard Callace was a cab driver, construction worker, and petty thief. In July 1986, he was charged with the January 1985 sexual assault of an eighteen-year-old nursing home aide at knifepoint in the parking lot of a shopping center. She had been accosted by two men and forced into a nearby car. The second man was never identified.
"The victim picked Callace out of a lineup as her assailant. Eighteen months earlier, she had described her assailant as 5'10" or taller, with reddish-blond afro style hair, a full beard, and a cross tattoo on his left hand. Callace is 5'8", had straight blond hair, a tightly trimmed goatee, and a tiny cross on his right hand. Prosecutors offered a deal to Callace: that he plead guilty and serve just four more months. Callace refused. The jury took one hour to convict him of four counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse, wrongful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a weapon. On March 25, 1987, he was sentenced to twenty-five to fifty years in prison."
[Note that Callace's after-trial sentence was 75-150 times longer than the plea bargain he'd been offered.]
"At trial, the prosecution presented a sketch by police artists resembling Callace, the victim's identification of Callace from a photo array and the victim's in-court identification of Callace. The prosecution also showed that the blood group (ABO type) of the semen collected from the scene was the same as Callace's. Callace presented an alibi, but it was uncorroborated.
"Callace's conviction was affirmed on appeal. After learning about DNA testing, he asked his attorney about the original trial evidence. The attorney remembered that the victim had just picked up her jeans from the cleaners and that she had spit out semen onto the jeans after one of the assaults. The jeans were secured for testing...On June 27, 1991, a judge granted Callace's motion to consider DNA tests as new evidence. He also ruled that if the samples did not mach, he would hold a hearing to consider post-conviction relief for Callace.
"RFLP analysis on the victim's jeans showed that the DNA in the semen stains did not match Callace.
"On October 5, 1992, Callace was released from prison. The prosecution dismissed all charges and did not pursue a new trial because of the DNA efidence and the reluctance of the victim to have another trial. Callace had served almost six years of his sentence. He received $450,000 in compensation from the New York Court of Claims."
