Dallas South News Wire (District Attorney’s Office)
A writ hearing on actual innocence has been scheduled for the court to enter findings on the post-conviction DNA test results of Johnny Pinchback. Prosecutors from the Dallas County District Attorney’s (DA) Conviction Integrity Unit will ask the judge for a favorable finding of actual innocence for Johnny Pinchback. Mr. Pinchback was granted post-conviction forensic DNA testing under Chapter 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
The hearing will take place on Thursday, May 12, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. CST in Criminal District Court 2, Judge Don Adams presiding. While Pinchback, now 55, pled not guilty to both crimes, he was convicted by a jury on October 5, 1984, of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 99 years in prison. He has served 27 years of that sentence.
Pinchback will be the 26th exoneree overall and the 22nd cleared by DNA in Dallas County since a law (article 64.01) was passed in 2001 allowing convicted inmates to request post-conviction DNA testing.
“Thanks to the thorough investigation by our Conviction Integrity Unit and the continuous advances in DNA technology, Johnny Pinchback will regain his freedom as we have concluded that he did not commit this crime,” said Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. “As always, we seek justice on legitimate post-conviction claims of innocence to ensure we get to the truth, and when the truth reveals that an individual was wrongfully convicted, we take action to correct that injustice.”
The facts of the case reveal that on March 22, 1984, at approximately 10:30 p.m., two female minors (under the age of 16) were walking home from a neighborhood store in Dallas when they were approached by a male who put a gun to one of the victims, ordered both girls to go to a nearby field and repeatedly threatened to shoot the victims if they did not cooperate. After the perpetrator tied the two girls together, he raped the first victim, then the second victim and then raped the first victim again before he fled the scene.
Once the perpetrator was gone, the two victims went to a nearby house and called the police. They were transported to the hospital where rape examinations were conducted on both victims. When the victims viewed photo spreads on April 4, 1984, both girls identified Pinchback as the man who had raped them.
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