‘Only God and I Knew My Innocence’

A Los Angeles man, recently freed after serving 12 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit, said Monday “there were three attempts on my life in the first three years I was in prison because I was a convicted rapist.”

In his first public comments since being released from Ironwood state prison near Blythe last Friday, Herman Atkins, now 34, told a news conference at a Mid-Wilshire law office, that “to be labeled a rapist is to be called one of the lowest forms of people on Earth.”

“That was humiliating for me, my family, my friends.” said Atkins, who was exonerated by DNA test results obtained by the New York-based Innocence Project and confirmed by the FBI.

Atkins is the 70th person in North America--64 in the United States and six in Canada--exonerated of criminal charges and freed from prison as a result of DNA testing.

Being tagged a sexual predator made him particularly vulnerable in prison, said Atkins, who proclaimed his innocence from the time he was arrested. As his sons, Herman Jr., Imari, 6, his wife, Anne-Marie, and his sister Dena Mims sat nearby, the South-Central Los Angeles man said. “You learned hand-to-hand combat. It was hard, but it made me stronger.”

When he “was convicted,” according to Atkins, “I said only God and I knew my innocence. Today, God, I, the [Riverside district attorney], and the people of California and the United States know that I am innocent man.”

Atkins broke down when he responded to a reporter’s question about whether his sons understood what had happened to him. Atkins recalled that he had wondered aloud to a Riverside judge at his 1988 sentencing what it would be like when the truth had finally emerged, “who would explain to my son why his father had been gone all those years.” Atkins’ older son was just a year old at the time; his younger son was conceived during a conjugal visit while he was incarcerated.

“I can only hope they don’t turn bitter,” said Atkins, who said his “greatest concern” now is protecting his two sons “so they are not victimized by the system.” He also declared that he would be willing to assist the Innocence Project, “which came to my rescue,” in helping to free other unjustly convicted people.

His attorneys, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, co-founders of the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School who have been involved in 38 of the U.S. exonerations, said they believe there are plenty more like Atkins.

Scheck and Neufeld urged passage of legislation introduced in Washington by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and in California by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) that would make it easier for inmates to obtain DNA tests in situations where there is relevant biological evidence that could demonstrate their innocence. Currently, only two states--Illinois and New York--have such laws.

What happened in the Atkins case should prompt the California attorney general’s office to launch an investigation of the state Department of Justice’s Riverside crime lab, Scheck and Neufeld said. They asserted that James Hall, a veteran state criminalist who still works at the Riverside laboratory, presented “fraudulent” scientific analysis at Atkins’ trial.

According to court records, Hall testified that Atkins was included in a population of only 4.4% of people who could have committed the rape, based on blood test analysis of semen on the victim’s sweater and body.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Richard Bentley of the Riverside district attorney’s office said those results were powerful evidence to corroborate eyewitness testimony from the victim, a shoe store manager and a clerk from a nearby store.

But Scheck and Neufeld said that Hall’s findings were “fraudulent,” and that in reality his tests did not narrow the range of suspects at all. Their charges reiterated conclusions rendered by forensic scientist Edward Blake of Richmond, Calif., who did the DNA testing that cleared Atkins and castigated Hall’s work in a report submitted to a Riverside judge last month.

Hall declined to comment when Blake’s report was filed in court and was unreachable Monday because the office was closed for the holiday.

The Times was unable to reach a spokesman for the attorney general’s office Monday.

The Atkins case is illustrative of broader problems in the criminal justice system, according to Scheck and Neufeld, whose recently published book, “Actual Innocence,” describes a number of their cases and those of other attorneys who have utilized DNA to obtain exonerations in recent years.

“Fraudulent and sloppy science” was a factor in one-third of 62 wrongful conviction cases reviewed by the Innocence Project last year, they said. Mistaken eyewitness identification, another critical element in Atkins’ case, played a role in 84% of the wrongful convictions.

Over and beyond investigating the Riverside lab’s work, Scheck and Neufeld said cases like Atkins’ cry out for a broader review of problems in the criminal justice system.

“When an airplane falls out of the sky or a car explodes,” the government launches a broad investigation to find out what went wrong and how a recurrence can be prevented, Scheck said. Surely, he said, the legal system ought to do the same.

The two attorneys also said that California should enhance its statute for compensating wrongfully convicted people. California is one of only 14 states that has such a compensation statute, but the damages are limited to a total of $10,000.

In some instances, legislators introduce private bills on behalf of an individual so that they can get more money. For example, last year, a special bill sponsored by Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gray Davis set aside $620,000 in taxpayer funds for Kevin L. Green, an ex-Marine who was exonerated by DNA testing after spending 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. “I hope the Legislature will pass a similar bill on behalf of Mr. Atkins,” Neufeld said.