{"id":1981367,"date":"2023-07-24T13:57:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T17:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dna-suggests-three-men-were-wrongfully-convicted-of-a-1997-murder\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T17:59:00","slug":"dna-suggests-three-men-were-wrongfully-convicted-of-a-1997-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dna-suggests-three-men-were-wrongfully-convicted-of-a-1997-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA indicates three men wrongly convicted of 1997 murder."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdna-suggests-three-men-were-wrongfully-convicted-of-a-1997-murder%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1981367&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Three Men Seek New Trials After DNA Results Cast Doubt on\u200b Their Convictions<\/h2>\n<p>Three men convicted of murdering a \u200b70-year-old \u2062woman in 1997 are hoping \u200bDNA results will \u2063get them \u2063new trials after maintaining \u2064their innocence for more than \u200c20 years.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Derrick Chappell, 41; \u200cMorton\u2062 Johnson, 43; and Samuel Grasty, 46,\u2064 were all found guilty of\u2064 second-degree murder in separate trials,\u2064 the Delaware\u2064 County Daily Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delcotimes.com\/2023\/07\/23\/3-convicted-in-1997-delaware-county-murder-seeking-new-trials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. Chappell\u2062 and \u200cGrasty\u200c each <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/every-black-life-matters-co-founder-blisters-biden-on-critical-race-theory\/\" title=\"Every Black Life Matters Co-Founder Blisters Biden On Critical Race Theory\">received life sentences<\/a>, while Johnson received 99 years\u2062 in prison, \u2064which is \u2062essentially\u200d a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heres-how-a-pizza-box-and-hair-led-police-to-the-suspected-gilgo-beach-serial-killer\/\" title=\"Pizza box and hair help police find suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer.\">life\u200b sentence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At the time that\u200b 70-year-old Henrietta Nickens\u2063 was\u200c murdered inside her \u200done-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia, Chappell was 15, Grasty was 20, and Johnson was 18.\u200c A fourth teenager, 15-year-old \u2063Richard\u2062 McElwee, turned the three in and took a plea deal for third-degree murder and\u200b conspiracy to robbery. He received a sentence of 6-12 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>But new DNA testing casts doubt that Chappell, Johnson,\u2062 or Grasty were involved in the murder,\u200b The \u200dWashington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/dc-md-va\/2023\/07\/23\/dna-innocence-claim-pennsylvania-nickens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. Attorneys for the \u2062three men have said that recent DNA testing found none of \u2064the\u200b convicted men\u2019s DNA on \u200bthe victim.\u2063 In fact, \u200bthe DNA results suggested that an unknown man \u2062was solely responsible for\u200d the crime.<\/p>\n<p>Nickens was brutally\u2064 beaten to death during a violent struggle, yet no DNA from Chappell, Grasty, Johnson, or McElwee was\u200c found in the victim\u2019s apartment. Their \u200cDNA was also not found on a green jacket\u200c left at\u2063 the scene, believed \u2063to be \u2063the only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/claim-fingerprints-were-found-on-wh-cocaine-bag-despite-secret-service-report-security-sources-allege-to-mag\/\" title=\"Sources allege that fingerprints were found on a cocaine bag in the White House, contradicting the Secret Service report.\">physical \u200bevidence<\/a> to link them to\u200c the crime, the Post reported.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys for \u200cthe men\u200b told the Post that the DNA evidence points\u200b to an \u200balternate suspect, whose\u2063 DNA was found \u2062in multiple places around the crime\u200d scene as well as on Nickens\u2019 bed, mixed with her own \u2062DNA. That\u200d DNA was also found\u2064 on the green\u200c jacket and on a chewed straw in the\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/234-years-ago-george-washington-became-americas-first-president\/\" title=\"234 Years Ago, George Washington Became America\u2019s First President\">jacket pocket<\/a>. This genetic profile had been obtained in the late 1990s from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dna-suggests-three-men-were-wrongfully-convicted-of-a-1997-murder\/\" title=\"DNA indicates three men wrongly convicted of 1997 murder.\">semen sample\u200b recovered<\/a> from Nickens, which attorneys for\u200c the defendants argued must have come from a sexual assault since Nickens had no\u200b boyfriend and was not in\u2064 good \u200chealth.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" aria-describedby=\"sk-tooltip-9096\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1690029339199000&#038;usg=AOvVaw1aBZKXZOsvkW3aRCKp8ThD\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>So far, no one has been identified as \u200bthe source of \u2062this DNA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe now\u2062 have the DNA evidence that really shows this was done by one \u2063unknown person,\u201d Pennsylvania Innocence Project attorney Nilam Sanghvi told the Post. \u201cThe defendants have \u200dbeen excluded from everything. The notion that [the] four \u2026 could somehow commit this\u200d crime without leaving a trace of their DNA seems absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Delaware County\u200b District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer has\u200c opposed a motion to vacate \u2064the convictions, \u200carguing \u2064in a brief that \u2062the DNA \u2063tests\u2062 wouldn\u2019t have \u200cchanged the\u2062 outcomes of the \u2062defendant\u2019s trials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsent compelling evidence of innocence, the trial court\u2019s verdict should\u200b not be disturbed,\u201d Stollsteimer wrote. \u201cThe postconviction DNA \u200bevidence is neither compelling nor is it \u200cevidence of innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three men found guilty of second-degree murder in separate trials are seeking new trials after 20 years of maintaining their innocence. Derrick Chappell, 41; Morton Johnson, 43; and Samuel Grasty, 46, hope DNA evidence will support their claims. They were convicted for the 1997 murder of a 70-year-old woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":1981368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1981367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}