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Edward Morgan, 60, is charged with capital murder after DNA testing confirmed he matched the swab taken in the 1984 autopsy.After 38 years, an arrest has been made in the murder of a 21-year-old Cheektowaga woman. Mary Jane Thompson graduated from Cleveland Hill High School and moved to Dallas, TX to pursue her dreams. "She wanted to be a model," said Mary Jane's sister Donna Book. On February 13, 1984, her family said Mary Jane was going to a clinic for medical treatment in Dallas. "When she got there they were closed and then she had taken the bus back...

A family's nearly two-decade wait to find out who killed their beloved daughter came to an end this month, as investigators announced an arrest in the cold case. The Orlando Police Department said Monday that 38-year-old Benjamin L. Holmes was arrested in the murder of Christina Franke. Franke was 25 and a student at the University of Central Florida majoring in education when she was found dead in her Audubon Park apartment in October 2001, according to FOX35. The college student had been robbed and assaulted, and her killer had left a large amount of DNA at the scene, police...

The Supreme Court opened a legal avenue Monday for prisoners to try to gain access to DNA evidence that might prove their innocence but noted that their chances at success might be slim. The court ruled 6 to 3 in favor of Texas death row inmate Henry Skinner, who has maintained that he did not kill his girlfriend and her two sons. Skinner came within 45 minutes of being executed last spring before the Supreme Court took up his case. There was no guarantee in the court's narrow ruling that Skinner, convicted in 1995, will ever gain access to all...

A judge in Hattiesburg, Mississippi today threw out the guilty pleas of two men who had spent three decades in prison for rape and murder after DNA tests showed they were innocent. The decision comes too late, however, for a third man who died in prison eight years ago. Bobby Dixon, Phillip Bivens and Larry Ruffin were sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Eva Gail Patterson of Hattiesburg in 1979. Larry Ruffin died behind bars in 2002. The Innocence Project filed a petition in July on behalf of Dixon and Bivens and a separate petition...

The danger of DNA: It isn't perfect By far the most reliable forensic science, it still has limits: Samples can be contaminated and may go untested for years. And collecting it may violate privacy laws. By Maura Dolan and Jason Felch December 26, 2008 In 2004, a New Jersey prosecutor announced that DNA had solved the mystery of who killed Jane Durrua, an eighth-grader who was raped, beaten and strangled 36 years earlier. "Through DNA, we put a face to the killer of Jane Durrua, and that face belongs to Jerry Bellamy," prosecutor John Kaye said. * Full coverage: The...

This week Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong could be slapped with more charges related to his handling of the Duke Lacrosse case. This week the State Bar Council will be holding its quarterly meetings in Raleigh. During this time, the agency could add ethics charges against the Durham district attorney. Nifong recused himself from the Duke Lacrosse case shortly after the state bar filed an ethics complaint against him last month. He's accused of misconduct for statements he made to the media last spring. In a letter obtained by Eyewitness News, defense attorney, Joe Cheshire requested to meet with Nifong...

Advocates for the falsely convicted face the uncomfortable consequences of success now that a man exonerated in a sexual assault has been charged with murder. ________________________________________________________ Jeffrey Phelps/Associated PressSteven Avery leaving prison in 2003 with his sister, Barb Janda, and daughter Jennifer. Tim Swoboda/Associated Press Mr. Avery in court on a homicide charge on Nov. 15. MADISON, Wis., Nov. 17 -... For days, however, the case of Steven Avery, who was once this state's living symbol of how a system could unfairly send someone away, has left all who championed his cause facing the uncomfortable consequences of their success... Two...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush signed an executive order Friday requiring authorities to preserve DNA evidence in certain older cases so it can be used to determine if defendants may have been wrongly convicted. "The destruction of this evidence could potentially enable the innocent to be wrongly convicted and the guilty to go free," the order read. It comes just two days after 67-year-old Luis Diaz, who was imprisoned for 26 years as the "Bird Road rapist," was released in Miami after DNA evidence from two of the rapes excluded him as the attacker, casting doubt on five cases...

Jodi Hilton for The New York Times A plainclothes state trooper asks a man to volunteer a DNA sample to assist in the investigation of the killing of Christa Worthington. TRURO, Mass., Jan. 7 - In an unusual last-ditch move to find clues to the three-year-old killing of a freelance fashion writer, police investigators are trying to get DNA samples from every man in this Cape Cod hamlet, all 790 or so, or as many as will agree. Raising concerns among civil libertarians and prompting both resistance and support from men in Truro, the state and local police began...

The construction crew refers to it as "The Mobile Home." Others say it looks like a Star Wars diner. A shuttle pod on stilts. At night, the futuristic gleaming silver-and-glass structure on the southern bank of the Arkansas River actually resembles a guitar fret board. Elvis lives. "A glorified house trailer," former President Bill Clinton joked at a luncheon here yesterday to kick off the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. "That's me. I'm a little red and a little blue." (snip) And what better site to store his legacy — tarnished or not — than a scruffy,...

Clinton Library Features Impeachment AreaNov 14, 8:07 PM (ET)By DAVID HAMMERLITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - As Bill Clinton's library is unveiled at a gala opening this week, one thing is certain: His messy legacy will be on full display. One alcove will be dedicated to impeachment, and organizers have promised not to sidestep even Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones. The 58-year-old political superstar is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to his library."Bill Clinton is a rock star," said Skip Rutherford, head of Clinton's nonprofit foundation that built the $165 million library. "He is Elvis."The William...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - As Bill Clinton's library is unveiled at a gala opening this week, one thing is certain: His messy legacy will be on full display. One alcove will be dedicated to impeachment, and organizers have promised not to sidestep even Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones. The 58-year-old political superstar is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to his library."Bill Clinton is a rock star," said Skip Rutherford, head of Clinton's nonprofit foundation that built the $165 million library. "He is Elvis."The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, a metaphorical "bridge to the 21st...

As Bill Clinton's library is unveiled at a gala opening this week, one thing is certain: His messy legacy will be on full display. One alcove will be dedicated to impeachment, and organizers have promised not to sidestep even Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones. The 58-year-old political superstar is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to his library. "Bill Clinton is a rock star," said Skip Rutherford, head of Clinton's nonprofit foundation that built the $165 million library. "He is Elvis." The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, a metaphorical "bridge to the 21st century" cantilevered out...

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 29 -- He was an hour late. So when President Bill Clinton took the stage this afternoon at the Clark County Government Center amphitheater, the crowd acted like starving dogs presented with thick, juicy steak. "We love you! We love you!" a group of women screamed, drowning out Clinton's opening lines for hundreds of people around them. The Comeback Kid had come to Las Vegas for his first solo campaign appearance in a swing state since his quadruple-bypass heart surgery, a compliment the crowd of 2,500 was determined to return. They cheered at whatever he said, laughed...

WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton has always had a flair for political drama. Now it looks like his just-in-time recovery from heart surgery, allowing him to campaign for John Kerry in the election’s closing days, may provide a jolt of excitement that any candidate would covet. Democratic strategist Donna Brazile says she started getting phone calls and e-mail as soon as word got out about Clinton’s planned appearance Monday with Kerry in Philadelphia, with messages like: “He’s back! The Comeback Kid!” She predicts “a great, electrifying last week of the campaign.”

DNA nets break in '83 KFC killings 3 inmates suspected in kidnap-slayings of five in Kilgore 08/21/2002 By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News TYLER - Three incarcerated career criminals from Smith County are now the major suspects in the kidnap-slayings of five people from a Kilgore Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant 19 years ago, authorities say. DNA testing of blood found at the crime scene and a statement from one of the suspects to other prison inmates has reignited the long-stalled investigation of the 1983 slayings, which is among the state's most notorious unsolved crimes, said officials in...

Charges filed in girl's '99 killing Recent DNA evidence linked man to Irving girl found in Trinity 07/12/2002 By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News Late at night, when she's supposed to be sleeping, 6-year-old Tiffany Ryno plays with her twin sister, Cristy. Their mother, Leticia Ryno, isn't sure if Tiffany is dreaming or merely sharing her wish that Cristy were still alive. That wish, of course, will never come true. But Thursday, another one did. CRISTY RYNO SLAYING April 17, 1999: Three-year-old Cristy Ryno is missing when her mother wakes up in her Irving apartment. April 21,...

Thu 11 Jul 2002 Clinton accused of fathering secret love child David Cox In New York BILL Clinton, the former US president, was at the centre of more embarrassing accusations about his infidelity last night, when he was accused of fathering a secret love-child. Mr Clinton is being asked to take a DNA test to determine if he is the father of an alleged former lover’s child - and it could be the final straw for his troubled marriage. If he refuses to submit to the test voluntarily, he will be taken to court and forced to provide DNA...