In a severely brutal attack where the woman almost bled to death, none of the boys had a spot of blood on them or left any DNA.
“In the publicity surrounding the motions by the defendants to vacate their convictions, a common theme has been that the District Attorney’s investigation demonstrated, by new DNA evidence unavailable at the time of the trial, that all of the forensic evidence admitted at trial has now been discredited. This contention is inaccurate.
The most important new forensic evidence is, of course, the DNA tests proving that the previously unidentified semen and pubic hair belonged to Matias Reyes. This finding adds nothing to the evidence introduced at trial other than Reyes’s identity. The proof in defendants’ trials brought out the fact that the semen and pubic hair evidence was that of an unidentified person, other than the defendants. The new DNA evidence, therefore, does not assist in determining whether the defendants were present during the attack on the jogger.
Other evidence admitted at trial consisted of: three hairs, one pubic, found on Kevin Richardson’s clothing that were “consistent” with the jogger’s hair; one hair “consistent” with the jogger’s found on Steven Lopez’ clothing;
a blood stain on Raymond Santana’s sneaker; individual blood stains on Yusef Salaam’s jacket and Steven Lopez’s underwear; and semen stains on the underwear of Antron McCray and Kevin Richardson and the sweatshirt of Raymond Santana.
We have not been given access to all of the forensic test material.6 Nevertheless, it is apparent, from the Ryan Affirmation, that no new DNA evidence contradicts any of the evidence introduced at trial. Experts have now been retained by the District Attorney to redo the same tests to which their experts testified at trial. They have, in some respects, disagreed with the previous testimony.
Tests described in the Ryan Affirmation concern hairs found on Kevin Richardson. At the original trial, testimony was presented that the hairs found on Richardson were "similar" to the jogger’s hair. The new FBI microscopic analysis tests, however, conclude that the hairs found on Richardson were not suitable for comparison. In other words, no comparison could be done. New mitochondrial DNA tests conducted on these hairs were inconclusive, i.e., no conclusions could be drawn from the results.
According to the Ryan Affirmation, the hair found on Lopez’s clothing cannot be found and, therefore, cannot be retested.
In addition, new tests were conducted on hair and blood found on a rock recovered at
the crime scene. The new test results apparently concluded that: (1) no comparison could be done on the hair fiber because no suitable control was available; and (2) the blood on the rock was found to be female but inconsistent with the jogger’s profile, however, contamination is noted as a possible reason for this inconsistency. These test results seem to have no bearing on the defendants’ participation in the jogger attack.
The Ryan Affirmation makes no reference to the blood or semen evidence.
This evidence was by no means dispositive at trial, but the fact that it exists is important. For instance, it contradicts various reports that no blood was found on any of the defendants.
In sum, the new test results establish that Matias Reyes is the previously unknown source of the semen found on the female jogger and her clothing. They do not prove that the defendants could not have participated in the attack.”
