DNA Testing Frees The Innocent

And finally it was his day. Dean Cage, after serving more than 12 years for a rape he didn’t commit, was exonerated and released from prison on May 28, 2008. Cage’s conviction has been vacated and the case against him has been dismissed.

Dean Cage was convicted at a Cook County bench trial in 1994 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1996 for the rape of a 15-year-old girl. In November 14, 1994, a 15-year-old girl was raped on her way to school in Chicago.The victim gave a composite drawing description to authorities and the sketch was publicized. The sketch resembled a man working at a meat-packing house in the 6900 block of South State Street. The victim also identified Cage as the attacker. He ws also identified as the attacker by another 29-year-old sexual assault victim but was acquitted in that case after conventional blood testing.

Cage always maintained his innocence and asked for DNA tests to prove it. Every authority turned deaf ears to his words until he wrote to the Innocence Project in 2004, a project that specializes in using DNA to exonerate the falsely convicted. And finally after years of legal work and a long sought after DNA test, Cage’s conviction was overturned.

“There’s a God up there. He blessed me,” Cage said. “I couldn’t have done this without him.”

“It didn’t seem like it was real,” he said of life on the outside. “It was really scary. At the same time, it was a blessing.”

The Innocence Project said nationally Cage is now the 217th person exonerated by post-conviction DNA evidence. He is the 29th Illinoisan to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Only Texas, with 31, has more DNA exoneration cases than Illinois.