SAN DIEGO (AP) - A judge on Friday reversed the murder conviction of a Southern California woman who spent nearly two decades in prison over the killing of her husband after prosecutors said they want to conduct new DNA tests on the evidence.
Jane Dorotik’s conviction was wiped out by a San Diego Superior Court judge and a hearing to discuss whether she will be retried is set for October, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“Frankly, I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment,” Dorotik said in a statement issued by the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent, which fought for a new trial. ”I have maintained from day one that I had nothing to do with my husband’s murder. Spending almost two decades in prison falsely convicted of killing the man I loved has been incredibly painful.”
Dorotik, 73, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life. her husband, Robert, 55, was found beaten and strangled on a roadside in 2000 near the horse ranch the couple rented in Valley Center in San Diego County. His body was discovered a day after his wife reported that he had vanished after going jogging.
Prosecutors contended that Dorotik killed him with a hammer and a rope. Her conviction was upheld several times on appeal.
However, the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent sought a new trial, contending that the police investigation was flawed, that the prosecution presented false blood and DNA evidence to the jury and that new DNA testing of the rope and scrapings from the victim’s fingernails - which weren’t available at the time - didn’t find any link to Dorotik.
The San Diego County district attorney’s office intends to retest the evidence “using modern and advanced DNA technology available to us today,” the office said in a statement.
A judge freed Dorotik from prison in April after her lawyers argued she was at risk of contracting COVID-19 because of her age, a heart condition and the close quarters of prison that made it impossible to maintain social distancing.
She has been staying with a sister in Los Angeles County.
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