Dean Cage- another case of justice gone wrong
October 26, 2009 – 3:37 pm | by wisnuajiDean Cage, the another case of justice gone wrong
For Dean Cage, it was an agonizing 14 years in jail for a crime he never committed, yet no one listened. Finally this father of 3 was exonerated in 2008 after DNA test conclusively proved that he was not the person who committed the criminal act on a 15 year old in 1994.
The assault took place on a dark day on November 14, 1994, in an alley along South Wabash Avenue. The victim was a 15 year old white girl who provided the description of an African American. After generating a computerized sketch, police received an anonymous tip and Dean Cage was arrested. There was not a single piece of evidence that linked Dean to the crime scene. Not only did he not match the description on the police sketch there was no physical evidence that linked him to the crime. Even the blood testing was negative and moreover, his own girlfriend insisted that Dean was at home at the time of the crime. The prosecutors and law enforcement were only interested in solving the crime and Dean was sentenced.
Cage had no prior criminal record and throughout his time in jail he never proclaimed guilt. In 2005, the innocence project took on his case and sought DNA testing of saliva recovered at the crime scene. That testing positively proved that Cage did not commit the crime. Dean Cage was released from prison in May of 2008.
“If you believe in something, fight for it,” Dean said the day he was released, adding, “The truth will come out in the end.”
Legal aides for the wrongfully convicted said this was the 57th mistaken eyewitness identification in Illinois. The Innocence Project’s Web site mentions that Dean Cage is the 29th individual in Illinois and the 217th person in the country to have been freed based on DNA evidence.
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