DNA Testing Frees Fla. Man Jailed For 22 Years
August 12, 2004
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A man who spent 22 years behind bars for a rape he did not commit walked out of the Brevard County Detention Center as a free man Friday morning, according to a Local 6 News report.
Wilton A. Dedge, 42, walked out of the Brevard County Jail with his parents just hours after the test results, which had been ordered last month by a judge. The state Legislature in 2001 passed a law that allowed DNA retesting in older cases.
Dedge was greeted with applause and a hug from his mother when he left jail at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
"It's been hell, the last 22 years," Dedge said. "It's finally proved to everybody that I was telling the truth a long time ago."
Brevard County's state attorney admits that his office put the wrong man in prison for life plus 30 years.
"DNA has done its job," State Attorney Norm Wolfinger said. "I believe in our system of justice, although it's not perfect. Thank God DNA came up in this case."
At two trials, the victim, age 17 at the time of the attack, identified Dedge as the man who slashed her with a knife and raped her twice in 1981. She had originally described her attacker as being 6 feet tall and weighing 160 to 180 pounds. Dedge at the time was 5 feet 6 and about 125 pounds.
Other disputed evidence against Dedge included testimony by a notorious jailhouse snitch. Dedge was convicted at both trials and sentenced to life in prison.
Wolfinger said the victim "was devastated by the news" that Dedge was not her attacker. He said there are no other suspects.
One of Dedge's lawers is drafting a federal lawsuit against Brevard County prosecutors who he called, " disgraceful and unethical."
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