Source: St.self storage Louis Post-DispatchDec. 25--ST. LOUIS --New DNA tests don't prove that a St. Louis man is innocent of the 1982 murder of a woman and the sexual assault of her young daughters, a judge has ruled.Rodney Lee Lincoln, 69, had sought to have his double life sentence overturned based on DNA testing that he claimed shows he did not murder JoAnn Tate, 35, nor assault her daughters, Melissa, 7, and Renee, 4.St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Robin Vannoy rejected his motion on Tuesday after hearing the case argued in September.Lincoln's daughter, Kay Lincoln, said attorneys plan to appeal the ruling."The decision was not what we wanted," she said Wednesday. "It was disappointing, but we'll just carry on to the next step."The Midwest Innocence Project, which took up Lincoln's case in 2005, hoped to get him released under a state law that allows for post-conviction DNA testing in certain instances. Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce's office agreed to new testing after misplaced evidence was found. But prosecutors opposed his release, saying this is not a case where DNA provides the final word.The results showed no male DNA on several bloody items from the apartment -- just that of the victims. Previous testing also showed Lincoln was not the source of hair found on a blanket on one girl's bed and from one girl's rape kit. The hairs don't match any of the victims, either.Laura O'Sullivan, legal director for the Midwest Innocence Project, argued one of the hairs had been "the linchpin" to Lincoln's conviction.A St. Louis police crime lab technician had described it as "a match" to Lincoln, using a hair comparison method that has since been debunked. The hair testimony was not introduced in Lincoln's origi迷利倉al case, which ended in mistrial, but was presented to the jury in a second trial, which ended in conviction.But prosecutors said while the hairs don't match Lincoln, they don't prove he's innocent."Life is not what's on 'CSI'," Assistant Circuit Attorney Ed Postawko said in September. "Nothing about this demonstrates Rodney Lincoln's innocence. It just shows they weren't able to get the perpetrator's DNA."He pointed out one hair from the crime scene was found to belong to an animal, showing that the two hairs in question could have been left by someone other than the attacker.Prosecutors also have argued that the two girls' eyewitness identification sealed Lincoln's conviction, not physical evidence. Lincoln's attorneys have contended those identifications were fed subconsciously by detectives eager to find the killer.Tate was found facedown in a pool of blood in her apartment on Farrar Street in St. Louis on April 27, 1982. She had been stabbed in the chest and sexually assaulted with a broom. Renee's throat was sliced. Melissa had multiple stab wounds.Melissa first told police that "Bill did it." Detectives chased that lead, bringing in any "Bill" who had a connection to Tate.They ran into dead ends until they publicized a facial composite drawn with Melissa's help. A family member said it looked like Lincoln, who Tate had briefly dated. Lincoln had already served time for killing a man in a fight in 1973.Melissa and Renee then identified Lincoln as the killer.Renee has since died of cancer. Melissa has repeatedly declined to comment on the case.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at .stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉
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