Nearly three decades after he was convicted of brutal rape and murder that he did not commit, Donald Gates was freed Tuesday by a D.C. Superior Court Judge after DNA evidence proved that another man committed the crime.

Mr. Gates has always maintained his innocence.  Now, thanks to the hard work of Parisa Deghani-Tafti and others from the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, he finally has regained his freedom.  

Judge Fred Ugast’s ruling frees Gates, but it does not exonerate him.  Prosecutors requested additional testing to verify the results, and a separate hearing next week to make a final determination.
       
Gates was convicted for the June 1981 murder of Catherine Schilling in Rock Creek Park. Prosecutors claimed that the 21-year-old Schilling was on her way home from work when Gates attempted to rob her. When she resisted, they said, he raped her and then shot her in the head.

FBI Special Agent Michael Malone told jurors that two pubic hairs found on Schilling’s body were microscopically identical to a sample taken from Gates.  A woman also testified that Gates tried to rob her in the same park less than three weeks earlier. A convicted felon also testified that Gates confessed the crime to him shortly after it occurred.

Gates has always maintained his innocence on these charges and claims to have never met the informant, who was paid to provide his testimony.  Incentivized snitch testimony is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions.

According to Gates’ attorneys from the District of Columbia Public Defender Service, it later surfaced that Malone had given false testimony in a series of murder cases across the country. Malone was singled out in a report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, and his record was the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation. Malone later admitted to lying on the stand in a death penalty case in Florida, the defense wrote.

Last year, PDS filed a motion to have further DNA testing done on Schillings's remains. Those and subsequent tests showed that Gates didn't commit the crime and also discovered another man's DNA, attorneys said in court.

It was unclear Tuesday whether authorities know whose DNA they have, but no new arrests have been made. To make a link to a specific person's DNA, officials would have to submit the genetic material to national databases and get a match. Only convicted criminals are in the databases.

During a review of Malone’s work, the Justice Department asked the District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to look at the Gates’ case. In 2003, a forensic scientist found that Malone’s lab report was not supported by his notes. Defense lawyers claim those findings were passed on to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but never were revealed to Gates’ counsel.
        
"This is outrageous," Judge Ugast said in regards to Malone’s faulty analysis. He ordered a review of all convictions in the District in which Malone testified. "We are trying to right a wrong," he said.

Another hearing was scheduled for Dec. 23, at which prosecutors will review all the DNA testing to determine whether Gates should be exonerated for the crimes and not have to register as a sex offender.

"Mr. Gates has been fighting to prove that he is innocent of this crime," said Sandra Levick, one of Gates’ PDS attorneys. "On behalf of my client, we are thankful he is now being released," Levick said.

MAIP would like to congratulate Tafti, who worked tirelessly to locate the evidence and obtain DNA testing, Levick, and the rest of the PDS team.  We also want to commend the work of Metropolitan Police Department Detective Jim Trainum, whose efforts to locate the evidence in this case were critical.

We wish Mr. Gates the best of luck.

Click here to watch MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust discuss the case with DC's Fox 5 News.

Click here to read a Washington Post Editorial about the Gates case.

Click here to watch Armbrust and two exonerees discuss the Gates case and give Mr. Gates advice for his future.