News Archive

Professor Fran Watson, ’80, talked about the case she lost eight times and ultimately won because of science, the hard work of students, and the help of a major television network news program. Her presentation, titled, “Righting Wrongful Convictions: New DNA Science Solves Old Cases, Freeing the Innocent,” was part of the Graduate Studies Lecture Series on January 26.

The Wynne Courtroom was packed with people for the lecture, many of whom were former Wrongful Conviction Clinic students who had worked on the case alongside Professor Watson. “The students who served as co-counsel were my inspiration,” she said.

Professor Watson’s clients, Darryl Pinkins and Roosevelt Glenn, were wrongfully convicted of a 1989 crime. There were originally five defendants, and DNA science available at the time excluded all of them from the crime. The five worked at a steel mill and a pair of coveralls that the men reported stolen were linked to the crime. Two were erased from the charges, and three faced trial. Glenn and Pinkins were convicted.

As she outlined the case against them during her lecture, Professor Watson recalled sharing the story with a fellow lawyer a few years ago. The lawyer told her to “make it simple, Fran!’ she said. “I didn’t make it complicated,” she said she replied.

Pinkins was released from prison on April 25, 2016, free of his 1991 Lake County, Indiana, convictions for rape, sexual deviate conduct, and robbery. The clinic has been involved in the representation of co-defendants Pinkins and Roosevelt Glenn since receiving the case in 1999 on a referral from the Innocence Project.

In 2015, Pinkins was given permission by the Indiana Court of Appeals to seek a new trial based on TrueAllele Casework System DNA genotyping. A hearing had been scheduled for April 25, 2016, on the petition. Dr. Mark Perlin, Cybergenetics founder and chief executive, and Professor Greg Hampikian of the Idaho Innocence Project and a professor at Boise State University, were scheduled to testify in support of the claim that Pinkins was exonerated by the new DNA technique which identified genotypes of the five assailants who committed the crimes.

Instead of the hearing, Pinkins was able to walk free after the Lake County Prosecutor, Bernard Carter, filed a motion on April 22, 2016, to vacate the conviction based on the new evidence, with no intent to retry. Instead of a hearing with expert testimony, Pinkins was greeted by family, friends, and his legal team upon his release from prison.

A motion to vacate Glenn’s conviction is still pending.

The story is the subject of an episode of the program “48 Hours,” which will air on February 4 at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on CBS. Professor Watson calls the involvement of the show’s producers in covering the case “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Professor Watson is the founding director of the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at IU McKinney. She is a clinical professor of law and teaches in the Criminal Defense Clinic and the Wrongful Conviction Clinic.