By msnbc.com staff and news services
A man sentenced to life in prison for raping a Colorado woman and strangling her to death with a dog leash could be freed on Monday based on advanced DNA testing that is believed to exonerate him of the crime.
Robert "Rider" Dewey, 51, who has been imprisoned since his 1996 conviction, is scheduled to appear before a Colorado judge on Monday in Grand Junction for a post-conviction hearing in his case, according to the county's court docket.
Dewey was convicted and sentenced to life without parole for the rape and murder of Jacie Taylor, 19, in the western Colorado town of Palisade. Taylor's partially clothed body was found in her bathtub in June 1994. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with the leash.
Bert Nieslanik, head of the Office of Alternate Defense Counsel in Mesa County, distributed an email last week announcing that Dewey’s exoneration will be the subject of a news conference expected to for 10 a.m. (noon ET) Monday, The Daily Sentinel reported. Dewey, who has maintained his innocence in the slaying is expected to be released from custody Monday, according to the email.
Dewey's lawyer, Danyel Joffe, would not comment on what the DNA tests may have revealed ahead of Monday's hearing, according to Reuters.
However, Stephen Laiche, one of two attorneys who defended Dewey at 1996 trial, praised Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger's office, The Daily Sentinel reported.
"They could have fought us on this thing, but they realized they had an innocent man," he told the newspaper. "It makes me wonder what we could have done differently."
Advanced techniques
Dewey's lawyers submitted his case to the Colorado Justice Review Project, a program established in 2009 with a $1.2 million federal government grant that allows convicted felons to apply for DNA testing in their cases.
The program is administered by the office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who lauded it as a way for advanced DNA techniques to affirm convictions or clear the innocent.
Questions arose during his trial about whether blood on his shirt belonged to the victim, according to local news accounts. A defense expert disputed the prosecution's contention that the blood matched Taylor's, the reports said.
The semen found on the victim did not match Dewey at the time of his conviction, but no other suspect was ever arrested for the crimes.
'Still a killer out there'
Under Colorado law, a first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Dewey consistently maintained his innocence.
At Dewey's original sentencing, then-Mesa County District Judge Charles Buss was quoted in local media as telling the defendant that, "I am happy to impose it (a life sentence) on you."
Dewey replied: "There's still a killer out there."
Post-conviction DNA testing has exonerated nearly 290 people in the United States since 1989, according to the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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