{"id":30221,"date":"2018-06-12T15:53:30","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T20:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30221"},"modified":"2018-06-12T16:31:14","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T21:31:14","slug":"dna-exonerates-oklahoma-man-who-spent-26-years-in-prison-for-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/06\/12\/dna-exonerates-oklahoma-man-who-spent-26-years-in-prison-for-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA exonerates Oklahoma man who spent 26 years in prison for murder"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_30223\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30223\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Tallbear raises his arms to the sky and places his palms together as he celebrates his release outside the Oklahoma County District Courthouse\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/06\/Selects_004-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Nick Oxford \/ Innocence Project<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Tallbear said he was &#8220;so happy&#8221; to be released after his conviction was vacated by the Oklahoma County District Court.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Johnny Tallbear has proclaimed his innocence for 26 years. Now, people are listening to him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>DNA tests ordered by the Innocence Project led prosecutors to ask a judge to dismiss a first-degree murder charge levied against Tallbear, which led to his conviction and life-prison sentence in 1992.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Prosecutors at the time claimed Tallbear fatally <a href=\"https:\/\/newsok.com\/article\/2387791\/jury-convicts-man-in-death-of-transient\">stabbed and beat a homeless man<\/a> known as \u201cPops\u201d with help from a second man who was never identified.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Karen Thompson, an attorney with the Innocence Project, and Oklahoma City attorney Douglas Parr asked to test Tallbear\u2019s DNA against blood samples collected from the crime scene.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>The blood did not match Tallbear\u2019s DNA, and those results prompted the Oklahoma County District Attorney\u2019s Office and Tallbear\u2019s attorneys to file a joint motion to vacate the conviction Monday. The court set Tallbear free the same day.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Tallbear left the Oklahoma County courtroom shackle-free on Monday with a wide smile. He told reporters he faced \u201cmany trials and tribulations\u201d in prison and he was \u201chappy\u201d to be out. He called for prison reform and said many of the people in prison should be given another chance.<\/p><p>Tallbear\u2019s legal team says eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence provided by discredited Oklahoma City Police Department chemist Joyce Gilchrist led to his conviction.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Serological Research Institute in California tested the blood from the case and found two unidentified men\u2019s DNA, but Innocence Project staff say no physical evidence pointed to Tallbear.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Tallbear\u2019s attorneys also pointed out that a physical therapist testified 26 years ago that Tallbear was mostly confined to a wheelchair at the time of the murder following a surgery to remove gangrene from his leg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Innocence Project staff say Johnny Tallbear was convicted by eyewitness testimony and inaccurate forensic data provided by a now discredited forensic examiner. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":30222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[886,884,883,888,885,887],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30235,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions\/30235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}