Note: The Pennsylvania Innocence Project has begun accepting and reviewing applications for assistance. While the Project has not yet begun full representation for any applicants, the following is the story of Bruce Godschalk, a Pennsylvania resident who was falsely charged with several sexual assaults and sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence. Mr. Godschalk was represented by a team of lawyers commissioned by the Innocence Project, based in New York, including David Rudovsky of Philadelphia. a founding member of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. Mr. Godschalk’s story is emblematic of the numerous mistakes, omissions and misconduct that have led to false convictions and lengthy prison terms for hundreds of persons later proven innocent in post-conviction DNA proceedings:
In 1986 there were a series of sexual assaults in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, that appeared to have been committed by the same person. A six-month police investigation ended with the arrest of Bruce Godschalk, who was charged with the sexual assaults. His arrest was based on an identification made by one of the victims (by a photo-spread), a full taped confession, and forensic evidence in the form of blood typing. After his arrest and commitment to the county jail pending trial, it was also alleged that Mr. Godschalk confessed the crimes to a jail house informant. There was biological evidence (semen) recovered from two of the rapes, but at the time of the initial police investigation, there were no means for DNA testing.
Mr. Godschalk recanted his confession, claiming that it was fabricated and that he was tricked and coerced into giving a statement to the police. A jury convicted him of the rape charges and he was sentenced to 10-20 years in prison. In 1995, he contacted the Innocence Project requesting assistance in securing DNA testing of the biological material. Innocence Project lawyers, including David Rudovsky in Philadelphia, sought voluntary testing of the DNA materials from the District Attorney. Upon the DA’s refusal to test the materials (or to provide it to the Innocence Project for its own testing), Mr. Godschalk’s attorneys filed suit in federal court asserting a federal constitutional right to post-conviction DNA testing. The court agreed and ordered testing by laboratories chosen by the DA and by the Innocence Project. The results were identical: the semen samples from both rapes were determined to be from the same person and the tests absolutely excluded Mr. Godschalk as the perpetrator of these crimes. Thereafter, Mr. Godschalk was released from prison after serving over 15 years in custody.
Based on the DNA exoneration, it was clear that the conviction was based on a false identification of Mr. Godschalk (in all likelihood the result of unfair identification procedures), a fabricated confession that resulted from detectives “feeding” information about the sexual assaults to Mr. Godschalk and then coercing him to confess to secure lenient treatment, a deliberately false jailhouse informant’s allegation that Mr. Godschalk confessed while in prison, and police suppression of exculpatory evidence.
In a civil suit against the District Attorney for failing to provide the DNA evidence for testing and against the detectives and township for constitutional violations that led to the improper prosecution of Mr. Godschalk, the matter was settled with a payment to Mr. Godschalk of substantial damages.
Unfortunately, the mistakes and misconduct that were revealed in the post-conviction DNA proceedings in this case are not isolated events. The exonerations of 225 persons based on DNA testing post-conviction involve very similar tales. |
