Richard L. Samuels
Richard L. Samuels (born August 13, 1926 - died April 14, 2001, in Flossmoor) was a Cook County Circuit judge at the in Markham, Illinois for nearly 30 years. His most (in)famous Case was the high profiled rape case against Gary Dotson during the 1970s and 1980s. Dotson is the first American man who was [1] to be exonerated of a criminal conviction by DNA evidence.
Samuels ordered Dotson back to prison, after the putative victim, Cathleen Mae Webb, of the alleged 1977 rape, recanted. Later Samuels upheld Dotson's conviction, because he thought her original testimony was more credible than her recantation.
Richard L. Samuels retired in December 2000. Due to cancer, he died 4 months later, at the Age of 74, on April 14, 2001,[2] in the in Hazel Crest. He is buried at the in Des Plaines.[3]
External links[]
References[]
- ^ "First DNA Exoneration, Center on Wrongful Convictions: Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern Law School". law.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2014-06-05.
- ^ https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V332-KWB[bare URL]
- ^ "Judge Richard L. Samuels, 74 - Chicago Tribune". articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2014-06-05.
- 2001 deaths
- Illinois state court judges
- Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Overturned convictions in the United States
- 1926 births
- 20th-century American judges