DNA Evidence Exonerates 300th Prisoner In U.S.

Damon Thibodeaux, 38, has become the 300th prisoner in the United States and the 18th formerly on death row in this country to be exonerated by DNA evidence, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. Thibodeaux of New Orleans served 16 years in prison. Thibodeaux was convicted and sentenced to death in 1997 after confessing to the rape and murder of his 14-year-old step cousin Crystal Champagne, a confession which was unrecorded and which he later appealed, stating it was coerced after a nine-hour interrogation by investigators in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish sheriff’s office.