SANTA CLARA, CA — A Martinez Superior Court judge ordered the release of Albert Johnson today after ten years of incarceration. Convicted of two sexual assaults, Johnson was sentenced to 15 years for the first assault and 24 years for the second assault in 1992. With no history of violent crime, Johnson has maintained his innocence of both crimes from the beginning. More than ten years later, DNA testing finally proved his innocence of the second conviction. Johnson is the 112th person in the United States to be exonerated based on post-conviction DNA testing.
“Unfortunately, this is a text book example of the serious flaws associated with eyewitness identifications,” says Kathleen “Cookie” Ridolfi, Executive Director of the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University. While the victim initially described her assailant to police as a twenty to twenty-five year old African American, who was between 6’2” and 6’4” with no facial hair or scarring, she later selected the thirty-one year old, 5’10” Johnson from a photo line-up, despite his mustache and facial scar. This identification occurred almost three months after the attack, and Johnson was convicted solely on the identification.
“There is a mountain of scholarly research that has proven the unreliability of eyewitness identifications,” Ridolfi says, “and it is particularly troubling when a single tentative photo identification sends a man like Johnson to prison for an incredibly long time.”
In November 2001, Johnson filed his own motion under Penal Code section 1405 for DNA testing in his case and contacted NCIP for assistance. The court appointed private attorney Charles Hoehn III to represent Johnson, and NCIP provided additional assistance. Although he has been released with time served for the first assault, Johnson faces one more legal hurdle: he wants his name cleared of that crime as well. Johnson hopes that the evidence still exits and can prove his innocence. NCIP and Hoehn have vowed to help Johnson.
NCIP is part of the National Innocence Network and handles Northern California innocence cases. The only other project of its kind in the state, located at California Western School of Law in San Diego, handles Southern California cases. There are over 30 similar projects nationwide. Charles Hoehn is a criminal defense attorney practicing in Port Richmond.
