Dennis Brown was convicted of a 1984 rape in Louisiana. His conviction came about after the victim picked him our of a lineup and he falsely confessed. Nineteen years later, Brown was released from prison after DNA testing showed that he could not have been the rapist.

The Crime
In September 1984, a man broke into a Covington, Louisiana, home and raped a woman, who was alone in her house. He threatened her with a knife during the attack. The victim later told police that the perpetrator was an African American male with a bandana covering his entire face below the eyes.

The Identification
The victim aided the police in producing a composite sketch of the attacker. The victim later picked Dennis Brown out of a lineup. At trial, the victim testified that she had seen the attacker clearly for twenty minutes and she was sure that Brown was the man.

Brown testified at trial that police had threatened him at knife point, forcing him to confess. He said he had volunteered for the lineup as a filler, not as a suspect.

The Biological Evidence
Seminal fluid was found on the victim’s sanitary napkin. Serological testing revealed that the perpetrator had type O blood and was a secretor. Brown and 40 percent of the African American population are type O secretors.

Conviction and Appeals
The jury considered Brown’s confession, the victim’s identification, and the serological evidence before convicting him of aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, and aggravated crimes against nature. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Brown sought and gained the assistance of the Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO). In 2003, IPNO filed a motion for postconviction DNA testing that was granted. Test results showed that Brown was not the donor of the semen collected from the evidence and, therefore, could not have been the man who committed this rape.

In 2004, after serving 19 years for a crime he never committed, Dennis Brown was released from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He was 17 years old when he was convicted.