DNA proves lifeline for falsely convicted in U.S.

ATLANTA, Feb 6 (Reuters) Willie Williams smiled but looked stunned as he emerged from Fulton County jail one night last month, more than two decades after he was jailed for a rape he did not commit.

He was the latest of around 192 people freed in the United States since 1989 because DNA tests applied to old evidence proved them not guilty, according to Eric Ferrero, communications director of the Innocence Project in New York.

''I always kept the faith .... I was (bitter) for about 10 years and then I just gave it over to the Lord,'' Williams told reporters before his mother and family members whisked him away.

As techniques involving DNA evidence become more sophisticated and can be applied to older and more fragile pieces of evidence, more and more convicts may get a chance to prove their innocence.

The bulk of those released to date were convicted between 1980 and 2000 and most had been serving long sentences for rape or murder, cases in which DNA evidence can be decisive.

''They come from all walks of life. They are disproportionately people of color, particularly African American and they are often poor and couldn't afford the best attorneys,'' Ferrero said.

Around 2.2 million people are in U.S. federal, state or local prison in the United States, according to Department of Justice statistics for 2005.

An estimated 32 percent of black males will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime against 17 percent for Hispanic males and 5.9 percent for white males, according to the statistics.

Williams was 21 when he was arrested for a traffic violation in Atlanta in April 1985 shortly after two brutal rapes in a suburb north of the city and was initially charged with giving a false address.

But when one victim later identified him in a police line-up he was also charged with rape, sodomy and kidnapping.

While he was in jail awaiting trial, three more near-identical rapes were committed but the district attorney rejected suggestions by Williams' lawyer that his client should therefore be ruled out as a suspect, said Lisa George of the Georgia Innocence Project.

Despite having an alibi for one of the crimes, he was convicted when a victim testified in court she was 120 percent he was the attacker and he was sentenced to 45 years.

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