A Baltimore City judge granted a new trial Thursday for a man convicted of a 1988 murder after new DNA evidence cast his guilt into doubt.
“He?s elated,” said Stephen Mercer, the attorney for 41-year-old James Owens, of Baltimore. “It?s too much for him to really process. It?s such an overwhelming thing.”
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed Owens deserves a new trial, but Mark Cohen, the chief of homicide prosecution, said he is not giving up on the case.
“The state still intends to prosecute Mr. Owens, but because of the new evidence, the state thinks he should be entitled to a new trial,” Cohen said.
If Owens and his co-defendant James Thompson, 47, overturn their convictions, they could become the seventh and eighth men in Maryland history released from prison because of post-conviction DNA exonerations, according to the Maryland Public Defender?s Office.
At Owens? Feb. 29, 1988, trial, Thompson confessed to burglarizing Colleen Williar?s home and watching as Owens beat, raped, stabbed and strangled the victim.
But defense attorneys announced in October that new DNA results, from semen and blood taken from the crime scene, exclude Thompson and Owens as the originators of the sperm found on Williar?s body and the bloodstain on Thompson?s pants came from a man ? not Williar.
Mercer said the new evidence shows his client is innocent, and prosecutors should drop the charges.
“I appreciate very much how painful it is for a relative … but the objective evidence shows that Mr. Owens was not involved in this crime in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Williar?s stepfather, William Winkler, said the new trial angers him, because Owens used to stalk and harass his daughter.
“There?s not a day that goes by that I don?t think about my daughter,” said William Winkler, Williar?s stepfather. “I know that he is guilty.”
Thompson?s hearing is scheduled for June 27.
