New DNA results clear Dion Harrell of charges in the 1988 rape case in Long Branch, NJ. The prosecution is now working to vacate his sentence.
Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office has released a press release that Dion Harrell has been cleared of charges due to new DNA test results.
The conviction of Harrell, released from prison in 1997 after serving four years for the 1988 rape of a 17-year old girl, will be vacated. The results of a recent DNA test concluded Dion Harrell has been excluded as a possible contributor of biological evidence obtained from the victim, announced Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
“This is wonderful news for Mr. Harrell and his family. Our goal as prosecutors is to see that justice is done. Mr. Harrell’s 1992 conviction was based upon the best evidence available at that time. Advancements in science have now provided evidence of Mr. Harrell’s innocence, and our duty to act is clear. Today, modern DNA technology has provided justice. We will be working collaboratively with Mr. Harrell’s attorneys at the Innocence Project in New York to take the necessary steps to vacate the 1992 conviction.” Gramiccioni said.
Dion Harrell, now 49, was 22 years old when he was identified by the victim just days after the September 18, 1988, rape as the man who sexually assaulted the girl in a dark parking lot. The girl accused Harrell of dragging her into an empty parking lot along Broadway where he allegedly raped her, before stealing her purse as he fled the scene.
The girl went home and reported the incident to her mother who called Long Branch police. A sexual assault forensics examination was conducted at Monmouth Medical Center where evidentiary samples were collected as part of the process.
A jury convicted Harrell following a 1992 trial before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Theodore J. Labrecque. Harrell was found guilty of the sexual assault based on the teenage victim’s positive identification and blood type evidence that placed Harrell in the population that could have committed the rape. Blood typing was the best technology available at that time. Harrell was sentenced to eight years in a New Jersey state prison, and records show he was released on parole in 1997, after serving just over 4 years in prison.
DNA evidence was first used in the United States in 1987, when a Florida man was convicted of Rape after DNA tests matched his blood sample with the semen traces recovered from a rape victim in Orange County, Florida. But it wasn’t until after 1992 that the New Jersey State Police Forensics Laboratory started testing and utilizing DNA evidence for criminal prosecutions in New Jersey. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) forensic database was created in 1994, six years after the incident.
