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DNA proves Dallas man didn’t commit 1982 crime

Posted: September 17, 2007 11:01 am

Innocence Project client Steven Phillips has been in prison for 25 years for a series of sex crimes in Dallas, Texas, that has always maintained he didn’t commit. Now DNA evidence proves he is innocent of the rape for which he was convicted by a jury. The rape case is the only one for which biological evidence exists that can be subjected to DNA testing. He would later plead guilty to several other crimes believed to have been committed by the same man. The evidence supports this theory, and a judge could clear Phillips of all of the related crimes.

Phillips is the first person to be cleared of wrongdoing by DNA tests ordered by District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office in January. If exonerated, Phillips would be the 14th person from Dallas County since 2001 to be exonerated based on DNA testing…

Ms. Morrison said although there is no DNA evidence in those other cases, he could be cleared in those, too.
"From the very beginning, the police said all of these crimes were committed by the same man," Ms. Morrison said. "DNA now proves Steven Phillips was not that man."

But Mr. Ware said the district attorney's office is not prepared to agree Mr. Phillips did not commit the other crimes. Prosecutors are still investigating the cases to which he pleaded guilty.

"If the police were correct, that it was one person ... then it could impact those cases," Mr. Ware said.
The issue may ultimately be decided by a judge, he said.

DNA evidence can exonerate someone for related crimes that were committed by the same person even if there is DNA for only one of them, the Innocence Project said.

Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 09/17/07)

Read about the 13 people exonerated by DNA evidence to date in Dallas County.

Tags: Steven Phillips

Innocence Project client seeks exoneration in Dallas

Posted: June 20, 2008 3:15 pm

Steven Phillips served 25 years in prison for a series of sexual assaults he has always maintained that he didn’t commit. DNA testing conducted last year proved that another man, Sidney Allen Goodyear, committed one of the rapes for which Phillips was convicted, and evidence shows that he committed the entire series of crimes. Fearing a life sentence at the time, Phillips pled guilty to nine related crimes that don’t involve biological evidence. In a court filing today, the Innocence Project says those nine crimes were also committed by Goodyear.

Read today’s news report here. (Associated Press, 06/20/08)

Tags: Steven Phillips

Steven Phillips expected to be cleared tomorrow in Dallas

Posted: August 4, 2008 2:50 pm

Twenty-five years after he was wrongfully convicted of a string of sexual assaults he didn’t commit, Innocence Project client Steven Phillips is finally set to be cleared. At a hearing tomorrow in Dallas, Innocence Project attorneys will show that DNA test results and other evidence prove that another man committed a string of sexual assaults for which Steven Phillips was convicted in the early 1980s.

DNA tests now prove that a man named Sidney Allen Goodyear committed a 1982 rape for which Phillips was sentenced to 30 years in prison. And other evidence shows that Goodyear committed a string of sexual assaults in 1982 to which Phillips pled guilty to avoid a possible life sentence. A Dallas judge is expected to recommend that the Court of Criminal Appeals fully exonerate Phillips in all of the cases.

“This is one of the worst cases of tunnel vision we’ve ever seen. Police seized on Steven Phillips as a suspect and refused to see mounting evidence that someone else actually committed these crimes,” said Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck. “Sidney Goodyear was a one-man crime spree who could have been stopped much sooner if police had followed the evidence instead of locking onto an innocent man.” After the Dallas crimes for which Phillips was wrongfully convicted, Goodyear committed at least 16 other sexual assaults and related offenses in multiple states.

Read today’s Innocence Project press release here.

News coverage of tomorrow’s hearing:

Dallas hearing set for man shown innocent by DNA (Associated Press, 07/31/08)

Tags: Texas, Steven Phillips

Steven Phillips cleared in Dallas

Posted: August 5, 2008 4:20 pm

Innocence Project client Steven Phillips was cleared today in Dallas more than a quarter-century after his wrongful conviction of a string of sex crimes when a judge recommended that his convictions be vacated. He became the 19th person cleared by DNA evidence in Dallas County, and his case will now go to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which could make his exoneration official.

“What a great day. Today is the day the Lord has made and I am grateful to him,” Mr. Phillips said.

Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 08/05/08)

Video: After 25 years, true freedom for Steven Phillips

Posted: August 6, 2008 1:32 pm

Watch a Dallas Morning News video as Innocence Project Staff Attorney Jason Kreag cuts off Steven Phillips’ ankle monitor yesterday, after he was cleared of 11 sexual assaults he didn’t commit. Phillips was released from prison on parole late last year, and since then he has been forced to register as a sex offender and wear the ankle bracelet.

“I had something to hang onto in the early years,” Phillips said. “I’m innocent and I’m in prison. And sometimes that’s all there was to hang on to, the fact that I’m innocent. I knew it was going to come into play at some time….It’s unfortunate that it took 25 years to come into play.”

Watch the video here. (Dallas Morning News, 08/05/08)

Tags: Steven Phillips

The surprising truth in Dallas

Posted: August 8, 2008 4:10 pm

In a column in today’s Dallas Morning News, Jacquielynn Floyd writes of the “visceral horror of undeserved punishment” suffered by Steven Phillips, who was cleared Wednesday 25 years after he was wrongfully convicted for a string of sex assaults he didn’t commit. With 19 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, Dallas is a hotbed of exoneration. But one of the reasons for this may surprise you…

There are a lot of questions still to be answered about how and why these errors occur. But it's sometimes dismaying to see Dallas so prominently cited for its wrongful-conviction rate, to hear cynical references to "Texas justice" in general and "Dallas justice" in particular as shorthand for unfair and abusive criminal-justice tactics.

So there was a certain comfort this week in the words of Innocence Project attorney Barry Scheck, who is probably the most visible face of the nationwide movement to clear wrongfully convicted prisoners.

He said the high incidence of local exonerations is due, at least in part, to a local willingness to identify and recognize error.

"There would be far more exonerations in cities, in other places – I assure you in New York we'd probably have 200 to 300 exonerations – if just the evidence were preserved," Mr. Scheck said during a news conference after Mr. Phillips' hearing .Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 08/08/08)

Listen to a radio interview with Phillips and Innocence Project Staff Attorney Jason Kreag. (KRLD, 08/07/08)

Read more about Steven Phillips’ case here.

Tags: Steven Phillips