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Rape Conviction Dismissed for Bennie Starks After 20 Years in Prison
Posted: May 15, 2012 12:45 pm
Tags: Illinois, Bennie Starks
Judges Order Lake County to Address Starks' Conviction
Posted: June 21, 2012 6:15 pm
One month after prosecutors in Lake County, Illinois, dismissed rape charges against Bennie Starks, appeals judges ordered prosecutors to address his request to dismiss a battery charge related to the same incident.
Starks served 20 years for the 1986 crime and was freed on bond in 2006 when DNA evidence pointed toward his innocence. His attorneys had to file a separate claim for aggravated battery against the woman during the same incident, reported the Chicago Tribune.
Starks and his attorneys argued it made little sense to hold him responsible for battering the woman once he was cleared of raping her.
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One of Starks' lawyers, Innocence Project senior staff attorney Vanessa Potkin, said, "The days of discounting DNA to uphold a conviction are over, and innocence and truth matter."
Based on a finding by the appellate court that the DNA results and evidence debunking the state's bite mark evidence would impact the result at retrial, Starks’ legal team expects that his conviction will be vacated and the charges dismissed when the case returns to the trial court.
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Tags: Illinois, Bennie Starks
Illinois Appellate Court Ruling Favors Starks
Posted: August 29, 2012 3:50 pm
An Illinois appeals court has brought Bennie Starks one step closer to being fully exonerated for a 1986 battery charge by rejecting the Lake County prosecutor’s request for rehearing in his appeal. Earlier this summer, the court remanded Stark’s case back to the trial court to determine whether to grant a new trial on a remaining battery charge after the prosecution dismissed a rape charge stemming from the same incident because of DNA evidence proving his innocence. The prosecution could continue to delay justice for Starks by appealing the decision to the state’s high court.
One of Starks' lawyers, Ronald Safer, said he could not imagine the Supreme Court taking up the matter and allowing prosecutors to try to preserve a conviction for a crime tied to a case that already had collapsed under the weight of DNA evidence.
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Prosecutors "have persisted in avoiding the unavoidable, which is acknowledging that Bennie is innocent of any crime, as the DNA proves," Safer said. "But they are going to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line."
According to the Tribune, Starks' is one of four cases in which Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Waller insisted on a man's guilt even after DNA pointed to innocence. Bennie Starks is also represented by the Innocence Project, local attorneys Jed Stone, John Curnyn and Lauren Kaeseberg, a former Cardozo clinic student, and by Associate Brooke Schaefer at Schiff Harden LLP.
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Join us in calling on Michael Waller for Bennie Starks’ full exoneration.
Tags: Illinois, Bennie Starks