A prosecutor from Pennsylvania will no longer retry a man that was imprisoned for 34 years with charges for rape and murder since the new DNA test exonerates him. Lewis Fogle was assisted by the Innocence Project, which aims to evaluate the physical evidence further through new testing techniques. The evidence that was tested was acquired in 1976 when the victim, 15-year-old Deanna "Kathy" Long, was killed, according to NBC News.
The forensic tests have shown that the sperm found on the victim did not match Fogle's DNA. It was then that the Indiana County district attorney's office requested the court to discontinue the case and drop the charges.
After 34 yrs in prison, congratulations to #LewisFogle on his exoneration! https://t.co/m857zgsEgo #StandUp4INNOCENCE pic.twitter.com/akWpvO70ag
— Innocence Project (@innocence) September 14, 2015
Attorney Patrick Dougherty of the Indiana County District told Senior Judge David Grine of Centre County that the reexamination and interview of the witness again was lacking "prosecutorial merit" and should be dropped, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Grine granted this request and freed Fogle under $25,000 unsecured bond and granting Dougherty's request for a month-long search to gather evidence if Fogle could be tried for a second-degree murder charge.
"I feel that he was involved, but the question was if we were ever going to have the evidence to prove that," Dougherty said on Monday, according to the Kansas City Star. "As I said before, there's a difference between innocence and being unable to prosecute."
"I want the people to know that I did not commit the crime, and a lot of people out there know I did not commit the crime," Fogle said on Monday, according to the Associated Press. "I'm hoping very strongly in the near future that the truth will come out with the names of the guilty parties, and I hope if any are still alive that they will be brought to justice."
The victim was raped and shot in the head then was later found in a rural area near her home. Fogle was charged 34 years ago after three informants testified that he confessed his crimes to them.
