The Nevada State Supreme Court building in Carson City.
The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered genetic testing giving Tyrone James, Sr., a chance to overturn his conviction in a 10-year-old rape case.
A rape kit was collected from the then-15-year-old alleged victim but was not tested before the trial.
When it was tested after James was convicted, it contained DNA evidence matching a man other than James. That came despite the fact the alleged victim testified she had not had sex with anyone for a year before the assault.
Attorneys for James then filed a petition seeking a genetic marker analysis and a writ of habeas corpus but the Clark County judge denied the petitions, arguing the DNA evidence would be inadmissible because evidence of a rape victim’s sexual history is not allowed and all that DNA test proved was that she had sex with another man.
The high court panel of Douglas Herndon, Elissa Cadish and Kris Pickering disagreed.
Attorneys for James argued there is a reasonable possibility he would not have been convicted if the DNA results had been known at trial and the high court agreed. They wrote that the district court mistakenly assumed the DNA was evidence of previous sexual conduct before the assault. They pointed out that the girl’s testimony stated that she had not had sex for a year before the assault. Therefore, they said the DNA found in a rape kit collected the day of the alleged assault indicates she did have sex with another person on that day. Denying James the opportunity to even test to confirm the identity of the other man prevented him from even making the case that it was some one else.
They noted that he has repeatedly denied having any sexual contact with the alleged victim. Because of that, they ruled the evidence strongly supports James’ defense case.
They ordered the genetic market analysis be done on the rape kit and referred the case back to court for further proceedings once the results are finalized.
Confirming the other man’s identity could greatly improve the chances James would be able to overturn his conviction and the 25-to-life sentence he received.
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