WASHINGTON (AFP) - Death row inmate Damon Thibodeaux walked free after 15 years behind bars Friday after DNA evidence showed he had been wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of his cousin, authorities said.

The 38-year-old was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary in the early afternoon, Pam Laborde, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections told AFP.

Thibodeaux is the 18th death row inmate released due to DNA evidence in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The first was Kirk Bloodsworth, who was freed in 1993 after being wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl.

"It takes a long time to find these cases," DPIC executive director Richard Dieter told AFP.

"If executions are rushed and accelerated then we are going to miss these cases," he added. "It underscores the fundamental problems that the death penalty could actually kill innocent people."

According to the Innocence Project, Thibodeaux is the 300th person to be exonerated of a wrongful conviction by DNA evidence in the United States.

Thibodeaux started his time on death row on October 24, 1997 for the rape and murder a year earlier of his 14-year-old cousin. His execution date had not been set, according to Laborde.

His conviction and death sentence was based solely on a confession made after a nine-hour interrogation that was proven wrong after a investigation involving DNA, forensic evidence, and a number of interviews, the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

Since 2000, six people have been exonerated from Louisiana's death row, compared to three executions, according to the ACLU.

"The people of Louisiana should demand a moratorium on executions until they can be assured there are no more miscarriages of justice like the one that occurred in this case," Denise LeBoeuf, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, who has represented Thibodeaux since 1998, said in the statement.

"Hopefully this case can serve as a model to other district attorneys around the country who are interested in developing conviction integrity units to review old cases," added Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, in the same statement.



<관련 한글기사>

사형수, DNA 시험결과 15년만에 풀려나  

15년간 사형수로 복무했던 데이먼 티비도가 금요일에 풀려났다. 그는 DNA 검사 결과 그가 사촌을 강간하고 살해하지 않았다는 것이 밝혀진 후에 풀려날 수 있었다.

38살의 티비도는 루이지애나 교도소에서 아침 일찍 출렸났다.

티비도는 DNA 검사 결과로 풀려나게 된 18번째 사형수다. 무죄 방면 그리고 혐의없음으로 인정된 사람으로는 300번째다. 첫번째로 풀려난 사형수는 는 9살짜리를 강간살해했다는 혐의를 1993년에 벗게 된 커크 블러즈워스였다.

"이런 일들을 시간이 오래 걸립니다," 미국 사형선고 정보 센터의 이사 리처드 디터가 말했다.

"만약 우리가 사형을 서둘러 집행한다면 이러한 사례들을 놓치게 될 것입니다,"라고 말했다.

티비도는 1997년 10월 24일, 그로부터 1년전 자신의 14살짜리 사촌을 강간 살해한 혐의로 사형언도 받고 복역하기 시작했다. 그는 9시간 동안의 취조 끝에 자백했고 그의 자백이 사형언도에 참고된 유일한 증거였다. 그러나 그 증언은 법의학적인 면에서나 DNA 그리고 계속된 면접 때에 나오게 된 자료들과 상충했다.