After twenty-three years behind bars for a murder he did not commit, Robert Lee Stinson was exonerated Monday when prosecutors in Milwaukee County, WI decided not to retry him for the 1984 murder of a 62-year-old woman.

Stinson was first released from prison in January, when Judge Patricia McMahon vacated his sentence. However, McMahon gave prosecutors six months to retry him for the murder of Ione Cychosz. However, thanks to the work done by the attorneys at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, prosecutors decided not to pursue a new trial. 

When he was first arrested and charged, police targeted Stinson because Cychosz was his neighbor, and bite marks on her body indicated that her assailant was missing a tooth. Stinson had this characteristic and after an expert testified that his teeth were a match, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

It was those same bite marks that helped the attorneys at the Wisconsin Innocence Project clear his name. Four dental experts using technology unavailable in 1984 agreed that the bite marks could not be Stinson's. In addition, Stinson's DNA was compared to saliva found on Cyshosz's sweater. While analysts confirmed that the saliva came from a male, they agreed that Stinson was not a match.

Given the overwhelming evidence in his favor, the Milwaukee County Prosecutor's Office agreed to release him, though they have not been willing to acknowledge Stinson's innocence.

Stinson and his family celebrated his official freedom six months after he left the prison walls. 

"I feel wonderful right now," Stinson told The Associated Press. "I can't express it in words. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

Stinson becomes the 241st person exonerated due to DNA testing.

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project joins the rest of the Innocence movement in celebrating Stinson's exoneration and wishing him well in his life as a free man. MAIP also congratulates its colleagues in the Wisconsin Innocence Project on a job well done.

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