Gary Dotson

Cook County, IL

Gary Dotson

July 9, 1977 (Homewood)

Sixteen-year-old Cathleen Crowell feared she had become pregnant after having consensual sex with her boyfriend and made a rape allegation as a plausible explanation to tell her parents. It had not occurred to her that police would pursue her case. Police made her make a composite sketch, and Crowell says they pressured her to pick Gary Dotson from a mug book, pointing out how much he resembled the sketch. Dotson was arrested even though he then had a mustache that he could not have grown in the five days since the alleged incident.

At trial in July 1979, Crowell identified Dotson as her assailant. The state's forensic analyst, Timothy Dixon, also testified that tests on the semen sample recovered from Crowell showed the alleged assailant had a "B" blood type which was shared by only 11% of the population including Dotson. This testimony was false and misleading because Dixon did not volunteer that Crowell also had a "B" blood type and her fluids mixed in with the sample. Thus the sample would have tested positive for the "B" blood type regardless of the blood type of the semen donor. Dotson had four of his friends give alibi testimony, but the prosecutor branded them as "liars." Dotson was convicted.

Crowell subsequently married and moved to New Hampshire where she became a born-again Christian. In early 1985, she told her pastor that she was riddled with guilt because she had sent an innocent man to prison. On her behalf, the pastor contacted a Wisconsin lawyer who tried to resolve the matter, but prosecutors were unresponsive. However, news about the recantation soon appeared in the Chicago Sun Times, taking up most of the front page. Illinois Governor Thompson said he did not believe Crowell's recantation and an appeals court would not overturn the conviction.

The public supported Dotson and Thompson tried to assume a middle ground by paroling Dotson. However, Dotson's parole was revoked two years later when his wife accused him of assault. On Christmas Eve, 1987, Thompson granted Dotson another “last chance” parole, but it was revoked two days later when Dotson was arrested in a barroom fight. In 1988, Dotson had DNA tests performed, which exonerated him. He got his conviction overturned on Aug. 14, 1989 and the prosecution declined to retry him. Many later reports on DNA testing listed Dotson as the first convicted person in the U.S. and the world to be exonerated by DNA evidence. However, priority to judicial exoneration goes to David Vasquez of Virginia who was exonerated and released on Jan 4, 1989. Unlike Dotson's, Vasquez's case was little reported. (CWC) (IP) (CBJ) (American Justice) (TWM) [12/05]