A man who served 21 years in prison for a murder and rape he didn't commit walked out of a Connecticut court a free man Wednesday after a judge dismissed all charges against him, reported WTNH. Kenneth Ireland was 16 years old when Barbara Pelkey, a 30-year-old mother of four, was raped and murdered in 1986. Police found Pelkey's nude body at the former R.S. Moulding and Manufacturing Co. in Wallingford, Conn., where she worked the overnight shift, NBC Connecticut (WVIT) reported. At the time, prosecutors used DNA evidence to help convict Ireland. While the DNA found at the scene of the crime wasn't conclusively linked to Ireland, it was linked to a blood type that 20 percent of the population has, including Ireland, reported The Associated Press in the Hartford Courant. Two people also testified that Ireland confessed. But Ireland denied those statements. New tests conducted on that DNA in the past few months at the behest of the New Haven state's attorney conclusively proved Ireland's innocence. On Aug. 5 he was released from jail, according to the Courant, and on Wednesday a judge formally dismissed all charges against him. His case was handled in part by the Connecticut Innocence Project, which has helped free two other men since 2006, the AP reported. For Pelkey's family, however, Ireland's release has caused a surge of emotion. The Meriden Record-Journal reported that Pelkey's stunned husband, Arthur Pelkey Sr., would wander the streets at night after his wife's death. He committed suicide by drowning in 1991. Pelkey's mother and her sister, Sharon Peirano, helped raise her children. "All these years we thought we could put it to rest, and now we're reliving it," Sandra Morton, one of Pelkey's sisters, told the Record-Journal earlier this month. "It's like grieving again." Pelkey's homicide case has been reopened, investigators said.
Don't Forget To Subscribe
0 COMMENTS:
Post a Comment