From the Connecticut News Junkie:
As lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee consider a bill to change how criminal lineups are conducted Friday, they may also want to consider the case of Hubert Thompson, who may be the latest Connecticut inmate to be exonerated by DNA evidence.
A judge allowed Thompson to walk out of prison Monday after serving five years for a rape that DNA evidence now suggests he didn’t commit.
Thompson was arrested after a victim picked his face out of a photo lineup, according to his lawyer William Koch, Jr.
According to a petition for a new trial filed in Hartford Superior Court, Thompson was convicted in 1998 of a rape and kidnapping that occurred in 1994. He was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison. At the time there was no usable DNA evidence, but the victim identified Thompson as the perpetrator.
This past October, evidence from the case was sent back to the state crime lab. The lab issued a report on March 5, which matched DNA found on the victim’s underwear to another offender in the state’s DNA database.
This week a Superior Court judge granted a request from Thompson’s lawyer that he be released from prison on a promise to appear in court for a new trial.
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