Thomas Doswell was the 25-year-old father of two young children when he was convicted and sentenced to 13 to 26 years in prison for the rape of a service worker in the cafeteria of a Pittsburgh hospital in 1986.
Denied parole four times for refusing to take responsibility for the crime, he would eventually win his freedom in July 2005 when DNA tests secured by the Innocence Project over the initial objections of the Allegheny County District Attorney ruled him out as the attacker.
During his incarceration, Mr. Doswell filed several unsuccessful appeals claiming that his identification by the victim and a witness was based not on their ability to recall him, but on the inclusion of a large red “R” under his photo in an 8-person photo array, a police practice at the time for identifying people previously charged with rape.
Since his release, he has become a vocal supporter of state legislation that would create an innocence commission to study the underlying causes of wrongful convictions, review cases in which convicts were subsequently exonerated and recommend changes in the criminal justice system.
