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Rape suspect loses legislative bid for freedom

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 2, 2008 at 4:17 p.m.
Updated May 2, 2008 at 4:17 p.m.

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A Denver man who has spent 20 years in prison for a rape he says he did not commit will get no help from the Colorado legislature after Denver police destroyed DNA evidence in his case.

On Friday, a House-Senate Conference Committee gutted the part of Senate Bill 205 which would have helped Clarence Moses-El, the man for whom Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon had shepherded the legislation.

Moses-El was convicted in a 1987 rape in the Five Points neighborhood in Denver despite a lack of physical evidence. Moses-El raised $1,000 from fellow inmates to pay for a DNA test in 1995, only to find that police had destroyed the DNA gathered in the investigation, the only evidence that could have proved him innocent.

Prosecutors said they destroyed the evidence after Moses-El's attorney failed to pick it up. He has served less than half of a 48-year sentence.

Gordon read the court files and met with Moses-El. He became convinced that the 52-year-old was innocent and tried to win him a new trial by pleading directly with the Denver District Attorney. That effort failed, leading Gordon to try for legislation that would mandate a new trail.

Gordon was deeply disappointed today that the new version of the bill will do nothing for Moses-El.

"I don't know anybody this helps," Gordon said, pointing to the new language for the bill. "I wasn't proud of this."

"To me, it's a clear injustice. There are very few of us who are in a position to do anything about injustice," Gordon said.

Gordon will now push to have Gov. Bill Ritter reverse Moses-El's conviction.

The Senate version of the bill would have granted a new trial to convicts if material evidence that was ordered to be preserved has been destroyed, lost or otherwise disposed of by law enforcement. The bill would have applied retroactively to people like Moses-El.

The House version applied only to future victims of destroyed evidence. Gov. Bill Ritter had threatened to veto the Senate version. Gordon spoke to Ritter several times, but the term-limited Majority Leader, who is a former defense attorney, could not persuade the governor, a former prosecutor, to support the bill.

"I'm disappointed, but I believe that the Governor was acting out of principle," Gordon said.

Gov. Ritter's spokesman Evan Dreyer said the governor had no comment on the bill.