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Richard Danziger and Christopher Ochoa were roommates who worked at an Austin Pizza Hut.  While visiting another Austin Pizza Hut they raised suspicions when they asked employees questions about the murder of a manager there.  The manager was twenty-year-old Nancy Depriest who was raped and killed at that location two weeks before.  The two were brought in for police questioning and under coercion Ochoa confessed first to the rape and then only to the murder of DePriest.  In order to avoid the death penalty he agreed to testify against Danziger for the other crime.  Both men were convicted and given life sentences.

Eight years later another prisoner, Achim Marino, serving three life sentences, began writing letters to police, the DA, Gov. Bush, a newspaper, and the ACLU, confessing to the rape and murder of DePriest.  He said he did not know Ochoa or Danziger or why anyone would confess to a crime he had committed.  Marino had apparently undergone a religious conversion while attending AA/NA and felt obliged to confess his responsibility for the DePriest murder.  Although Marino exhibited detailed knowledge of the crime, the letters had little effect.  Austin Police did go to interview Ochoa, but he continued to profess guilt.  Later he explained that he feared claiming innocence would hurt his chance for parole.

Three years afterward Ochoa reconsidered and contacted the Wisconsin Innocence Project.  After DNA tests were done, both he and Danziger were exonerated and released.  The tests also confirmed that Marino was the perpetrator.  While in prison, Danziger was severely beaten by another prisoner and suffered severe brain damage that incapacitated him for life.  Danziger and Ochoa were awarded $9 million and $5.3 million respectively in 2003 for 13 years of wrongful imprisonment.  (IP1) (IP2) (CWC1) (CWC2) (Frontline)  [9/05]

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