Clark County prosecutors ended months of speculation by announcing Thursday they plan to dismiss charges against two men whose 1993 rape convictions were vacated by a judge on the basis of newly discovered DNA evidence.
Charges against Larry W. Davis and Alan G. Northrop will officially be dismissed at a court hearing July 14, said Senior Deputy Prosecutor John Fairgrieve.
It will be only the second time in Washington that a defendant has been exonerated based on new DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project Northwest.
The pending dismissal follows weeks of investigation by the prosecution to try to explain the new DNA evidence, which the defense suggested pointed to different assailants in the Jan. 11, 1993, attack of a housekeeper cleaning a home in La Center. The testing was performed at the request of the Innocence Project Northwest, which operates in conjunction with the University of Washington’s law school.
The prosecution thought the DNA evidence — which showed a match with two different, unknown men — could have come from people unrelated to the attack who had contact with the victim: her son, the homeowner of the house she was cleaning and a friend. But follow-up testing over the past month did not show a DNA match with any of these people, Fairgrieve said.
“That in conjunction with the desire of the victim not to have to go through with another trial is causing us to dismiss the case,” he said.
In two separate 1993 trials, the then-36-year-old woman identified Northrop and Davis as her attackers, even though she initially told sheriff’s investigators she wasn’t positive about her identifications. She had been blindfolded when two men were alleged to have burglarized the home, attacked and then one of them raped her.
After initially having trouble tracking her down, prosecutors have only had minimal contact with the woman through telephone calls and aren’t even sure of her whereabouts now.
Testing requested
The Innocence Project Northwest requested in 2005 testing be performed on pieces of crime scene evidence that couldn’t be tested back in 1993 because of the lack of technology.
The results came back earlier this year, prompting Clark County Superior Court Judge Diane Woolard to vacate the men’s convictions on April 21. Vacating a sentence isn’t the same as a jury acquittal; it simply sets the conviction aside and gives prosecutors the option of taking the case to trial again.
In announcing the decision Thursday to drop charges, Fairgrieve noted that DNA evidence taken from the woman’s fingernail scrapings and pubic hair show a match with unknown men. In addition, testing performed on 16 pieces of crime scene evidence yielded no DNA matches with either defendant. That includes the woman’s clothing as well as duct tape and white elastic cords alleged to have been used to tie her up.
“The existence of the new DNA evidence in this case, not available at the time of the original trial, significantly changes the nature of the evidence in the case,” Fairgrieve said in a statement.
Fairgrieve said he plans to dismiss charges without prejudice, meaning charges could still be refiled.
When reached by telephone in Seattle, John Pantazis, staff attorney with the Innocence Project Northwest, said the follow-up DNA testing has shown what he knew all along: “First, I think it’s overwhelmingly clear that Larry Davis and Alan Northrop are completely innocent, but also that the DNA did, in fact, come from the actual assailants.”
In July 1993, a jury had convicted Northrop, now 45, of first-degree rape, kidnapping and burglary. He was sentenced to 23 years and six months in prison.
In May 1993, a different jury convicted Davis, now 53, of being an accomplice to first-degree rape, and of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree burglary. He received 20 years and six months in prison.
With time off for good behavior, Davis was released in January. But Northrop has been serving his sentence at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen. He was released when Woolard vacated the convictions in April.
Pantazis said now both men will really be free.
“I think on Wednesday it will be a very special day because they will finally be able to put this behind them,” he said. “They will be free in every sense of the word.”
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
