KS- Court rules for Lowery

This is a rather interesting case, note, his conviction was overturned AFTER he had served his sentence based on DNA evidence.

4-25-2008 Kansas:

A federal appeals court has ruled against a group of former Riley County Police Department officials who are being sued by a man who served 10 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the bulk of the defendants' appeals in which they claim they are immune from the lawsuit of plaintiff Eddie Lowery.

Lowery, a soldier at Fort Riley at the time, was convicted in 1982 of raping a woman in Ogden. He served 10 years in Lansing State Penitentiary and another 10 years as a registered sex offender. On July 26, 1981, Lowery was involved in a traffic accident in Ogden, the same night a 74-year-old Ogden woman was raped in the vicinity of the accident. Law enforcement suspected a connection and took Lowery into custody; he was questioned for about eight hours.

In 2003, DNA testing proved he didn't commit the crime and on April 4 of that year Riley County District Court Judge Meryl Wilson declared him innocent. Lowery had been paroled in 1991, but only after he agreed to confess to the crime for a second time to be able to complete a sex offender treatment program as a mandatory condition for release.

Seven months later, Lowery filed a lawsuit, seeking $15 million in damages from various police officers and governmental agencies for violation of his civil rights. He alleges that his "confession" was coerced in part and fabricated by some Riley County Police officers.

Monday's ruling keeps alive most of Lowery's lawsuit against Harry Malugani, Douglass Johnson, Steve French, Alvan Johnson, and Larry Woodyard in U.S. District Court in Wichita. They had appealed a decision by Judge J. Thomas Marten, who denied their contention that they are immune from the lawsuit and their request for a summary judgment in their favor without a trial.

The appellate judges dismissed most of the officers' appeal, stating that a summary judgment wasn't appropriate because key evidence was in dispute. Other defendants are the Riley County Commission, Manhattan City Commission and Ogden City Council.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was one of the three judges who issued Monday's ruling for the Denver- based court. O'Connor has sat in with various appeals courts across the county in recent months. The other judges were Deanell Tacha of Lawrence and Robert Henry of Oklahoma City.

Barry Clark, one of Lowery's attorneys, said in a published report that the ruling moves the case into a discovery period where each side can obtain evidence from the other side. ..more.. by Staff Reports