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After 28 Years in Prison, Man Convicted Based on Dream Testimony Walks Free

HeadlineDec 23, 2015

In Denver, Clarence Moses-EL has been released from prison after serving 28 years for a crime he has always maintained he did not commit. In 1989, Clarence Moses-EL, who is African-American, was sentenced to 48 years in prison after a woman said she dreamed he was the man who raped and beat her in the dark. The victim was raped and badly beaten in her apartment. Initially, the victim named three men she had been drinking with that night as her possible attackers—none of them was Clarence Moses-EL. But police never investigated any of those men, because, a day and a half later, the victim said she had a dream that Moses-EL was the one who raped her. The police threw out a rape kit and any possible evidence, like bed sheets and her clothes. This summer, one of the three men she originally named confessed. On Tuesday afternoon, Moses-EL was released to a crowd that included his wife, son and several of his 12 grandchildren, whom he had never met as he did not want them to see him in prison. Moses-EL’s retrial is set for June 2016. To see our interview with Moses-EL’s lawyer and the editor of The Colorado Independent, go to democracynow.org.

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