KTRV Fox 12 Idaho Innocence Project Helps Free Wisconsin Man
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Boise, Idaho -- The Idaho Innocence Project has helped exonerate a Wisconsin man who'd already served 24 years in jail.
Robert Lee Stinson is now 44. He was convicted in the murder of a Milwaukee woman when he was just 21. Stinson always maintained his innocence so the Wisconsin Innocence Project took up the case and in 2006 asked for help from Greg Hampikian at Boise State. The work he and his team did proved it was not Stinson's DNA at the crime scene, and Monday all the charges against him were dropped.
"It's rewarding if we find out they were innocent or guilty," said Hampikian, Idaho Innocence Project Director and professor of Biology. "What's rewarding is looking around, it's the science, who would of thought when I got a PhD in fruit flies, I'd be able to help someone prove their innocence or help the police prove guilt."
Hampikian estimates he's received about 200 letters in last three or four years requesting his help. Right now he and his team are working on 12 cases in Idaho and another two dozen from across the country. For more information on this volunteer organization and the people they've set free, visit this link: http://www.idahoinnocenceproject.org/
