INNOCENCE: After 19 Years, Innocent Man to Walk Free

The Utah Attorney General's office has recommended that Bruce Dallas Goodman's murder conviction be set aside as a result of new DNA tests that have confirmed Goodman's steadfast claims of innocence. Goodman was convicted in 1984 for the murder of his girlfriend, Sherry Ann Fales, who was raped, sodomized, beaten to death and abandoned off an interstate exit, a crime that qualified for the death penalty. Since his arrest, Goodman has maintained that he did not murder Fales, and the state's case against him was largely circumstantial. Last year, the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center examined DNA evidence taken from the scene of the crime and the Center's findings excluded Goodman as the murderer. Instead, the DNA samples pointed to two men, neither of them identifiable. Following the testing, Josh Bowland, an attorney with the Innocence Center, petitioned to vacate Goodman's conviction based on the new evidence. Based on the Attorney General's recommendation, Goodman is expected to be released after 19 years in prison. (Associated Press, October 15, 2004)