DNA Exonerates Marlon Pendleton
Marlon Pendleton at NU School of Law in December 2006. (Photo: Jennifer Linzer)
Marlon Pendleton, 49, a Center on Wrongful Conviction client convicted of sexual assault in 1993, was released from prison on November 30, 2006, after DNA testing established his innocence of the crime, which occurred in Chicago the previous year. The prosecution’s case against Pendleton had been based entirely on eyewitness identification testimony. Pendleton repeatedly requested DNA testing before trial, but Pamela Fish, a Chicago Police Department forensic analyst, falsely claimed that amount of semen recovered form the victim was too small to yield a result. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Sacks ordered testing in 2006 over the objection of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
