70-Year-Old Court Employee Fired After Helping A Wrongly Convicted Man Seek DNA Tests
Robert Nelson, 49, used the information from Sharon Snyder, 70, to prove he didn't commit a rape that would have kept him behind bars for 70 years.
Nelson filed a motion in 2009 requesting DNA testing not available when the court convicted him 25 years earlier in 1983. Jackson County judge David Byrn, the same one who put him in prison, twice denied his request.
At that point, Nelson's sister got in touch with Snyder. The great-grandmother provided Nelson with a case where a judge sustained a motion for retrospective DNA testing.
With this new information Nelson tried a third time, and Byrn granted his motion and appointed a lawyer from the Innocence Project to represent him. Last month, the Kansas City
Nelson calls Snyder his "angel," the AP reported.
In his letter dismissing Snyder, the judge said she'd crossed a line by giving advice to a defendant.
“The document you chose was, in effect, your recommendation for a Motion for DNA testing that would likely be successful in this Division,” according to the letter quoted by the AP. “But it was clearly improper and a violation of Canon Seven … which warns against the risk of offering an opinion or suggested course of action.”
- I got a $40K raise using this 30-second strategy. It made me realize loud work, not hard work, always wins.
- A millennial manager went viral after her Gen Z assistant picked up a work call while at the hair salon: 'Go off queen'
- Qatar Airways' new CEO explains why it's sticking with the Airbus A380 as other airlines retire the costly superjumbo
- Kia India looks to expand sales, service network to 700 touchpoints by year-end
- Shapoorji Pallonji’s Afcons Infra files DRHP for ₹7,000 crore IPO
- Water crisis affects businesses across Bengaluru; Is there room for cautious optimism?
- BenQ Zowie EC2-CW review – Premium wireless mouse for gamers
- Banks' GNPAs set to improve further to 2.1 pc by FY25: Care Ratings