Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A man who spent 26 years in prison in the 1982 slaying of a Washington woman was exonerated following the discovery that the FBI made a critical lab error during the investigation, the Washington Post reports.
Kevin Martin, 50, who long maintained his innocence, was cleared following DNA evidence that contradicted FBI lab results that tied Martin to the scene of the attack.
It’s the fifth time in five years that prosecutors in Washington conceded making errors by an elite forensic unit.
“I am free at last. I am humbled. I never gave up,” Martin said, hugging his lawyers as his fiancé and family gathered around him.
“I just want to live,” Martin said.
Martin was accused of killing Ursula C. Brown, whose body was found near a dumpster next to an elementary school. She had been stabbed, sexually assaulted and shot in the head.
