DNA Sets La. Prisoner Free After 16 Years

A man who served 16 years of a life sentence for rape was released from prison Friday after a second DNA test showed he didn’t commit the crime.

“I feel great,” Gene Bibbins said at a news conference. “After 16 years, I feel good. In time, everything will be OK. I just knew one day, if I got the right people behind me, I’d get out.”

The conviction of Gene Bibbins remains in place because the test results are classified as preliminary. Once they are official, the conviction can be reversed.

Meanwhile, he is free on $5,000 bond.

“I’m ready to get some sleep,” Bibbins said before being whisked off to dinner with his lawyers, supporters and family.

Results of two DNA tests indicate that Bibbins is not the man who climbed through the bedroom window of a 13-year-old girl in 1986 and raped her while holding a knife to her throat.

The victim’s testimony and Bibbins’ possession of a radio from her room were key pieces of evidence used to convict him of aggravated rape.

Prosecutor Sue Bernie said her office would not oppose Bibbins’ release.

Bibbins is the first person set free under a new Louisiana law that gives prisoners greater access to DNA testing to prove their innocence. Inmates were given four years to request testing.

“He has now been vindicated by tests by two laboratories,” said Vanessa Potkin, staff attorney for the Innocence Project in New York, a group that seeks to free wrongly convicted inmates. The group assisted Bibbins in getting the DNA testing.

“I want to get a phone call today from a legislator, offering to put a bill forward to give Gene Bibbins compensation,” said Emily Bolton, director of the New Orleans Innocence Project. Louisiana has no program to compensate people wrongly convicted.

Bibbins said he never lost hope and felt no antagonism against anyone.

Asked about the future, he said, “I’m going to take it easy right now. I’m not in a big rush.”