In 1984, David Shephard was convicted of a rape and robbery arising from an incident where two men had abducted a woman from a parking lot in New Jersey. The victim identified Shephard as the rapist through voice identification after one of the assailants had called the other “Dave.” Blood-type testing performed on biological evidence could not exclude Shephard, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. DNA testing conducted in 1992 excluded Shephard as the depositor of semen on a vaginal swab, but since there were two perpetrators, he could not be definitively excluded. Further testing revealed two DNA profiles, neither of which matched Shephard. In light of these results, a new trial was ordered, but the prosecution elected not to retry Shephard. He was exonerated 15 years ago this week.

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