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| Official: DNA Clears Convicted Rapist |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/23/2002 |
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The Montana attorney general asked a judge last week to vacate the rape conviction of a man who has spent the past 15 years in prison, saying DNA evidence shows he didn't commit the crime. Jimmy Bromgard was convicted in 1987 of three counts of rape and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Prosecutors said then that he broke into an 8-year-old girl's bedroom, gagged and sexually assaulted her. On September 10, Attorney General Mike McGrath said the victim apparently picked Bromgard out of a police lineup and that the conviction was based largely on her testimony. McGrath said Bromgard and attorneys from the Innocence Project, an organization that uses DNA evidence in efforts to prove people innocent, requested DNA tests on semen samples recovered from the girl's clothing. Two separate tests showed the samples did not match Bromgard's DNA. Yellowstone County prosecutor Dennis Paxinos has also requested the conviction be thrown out. 'Clearly there has been an injustice in this case,' said Paxinos, who was not the county prosecutor when Bromgard was convicted. Bromgard's half brother, Rodney Bromgard, said the request that his brother be set free brought mixed emotions. 'There's joy and then there's sadness,' he said recently. 'He lost his life pretty much. I'm concerned for how he's going to be able to function on the outside.' A hearing was scheduled for Oct. 1. |
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