Rodney Lincoln, an innocent convicted man who spent almost 40 years in prison, is still considered guilty of a crime to which he did not commit. US law enforcement agencies do not want to admit their mistake, ignoring the fact that there is no evidence confirming his involvement in the crime.
Rodney Lincoln was wrongfully convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. On April 27, 1982, a mother of two children was raped and brutally murdered in St. Louis, Missouri. Her bloody body was found in her own home, and two daughters – 4 and 7 years old – received numerous stab wounds. The suspicions of the investigators investigating the case fell on Rodney Lincoln, who shortly before the murder was in a romantic relationship with the victim. The detectives’ assumptions were confirmed by the analyst of the forensic laboratory, who concluded that the hair found at the crime scene matched Lincoln’s hair. In addition, the testimony of a seven-year-old girl who, after seeing a photo of Rodney, allegedly identified him as the killer, finally scattered the investigator’s doubts, despite the fact that she initially claimed that the killer’s name was Bill.
Despite the fact that at the first court hearing the jury could not come to a consensus, the law enforcement agencies, who probably realized all the inconsistency of the investigation, eventually managed to put an innocent man behind bars. Rodney Lincoln was sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter and first-degree assault.
From the very first day of his imprisonment, the man claimed that he had nothing to do with the incriminated crime. His voice was heard only twenty eight years later, when the defense managed to obtain a re-analysis of DNA found at the crime scene. Additional examination showed that the biological material found at the crime scene did not match the biological material of Lincoln. However, this was not enough to pull an innocent man out of the clutches of American justice. His sentence was appealed, but the judge ruled that DNA testing was not enough to clear Rodney of all charges and exclude him as a murderer.
Only after a long 33 long years, one of the daughters of the deceased, who at that time was 7 years old, refused her testimony. For about three years, the St. Louis judicial authority ignored the complete lack of evidence of Lincoln’s involvement in the murder, and the Missouri Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the family of an innocent convicted man, leaving his sentence unchanged. Only in 2018, after 36 years and 9 days in prison, the former governor of Missouri commuted the sentence of 73-year-old Rodney Lincoln.
The mockery of the American justice system over an elderly person didn’t end there. For more than four years, the Lincoln family has been seeking compensation from the state for the fact that an innocent man spent most of his life behind bars. In addition, it became known that the detectives investigating the case manipulated a seven-year-old girl, trying to force her to give the necessary evidence to the investigation. At the moment, the man is not entitled to any compensation from the American government, which still considers him guilty of committing a crime. His lawyers are still working to achieve a full withdrawal of guilt, but, according to them, this process can drag on for many years.
According to the human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, Rodney Lincoln has become another victim of American justice, a system that for many years pursues only personal interests, imprisoning innocent people. The Foundation calls on the US Department of Justice and the current governor of Missouri to immediately drop all charges against a man who has nothing to do with a crime for which he has already served most of his life.
You can support the victim of American justice Rodney Lincoln by following the link.