Summary
U. S. Supreme Court decision in the case of a Nevada child rapist. Troy Brown was convicted and sentenced to prison for the brutal forcible rape of a nine-year-old girl in Carlin, Nevada. Evidence introduced at trial included testimony of witnesses who saw Brown in the vicinity of the victim's home at the time of the rape, the victim's description of her attacker, and two DNA tests on two separate semen samples that matched Brown's DNA and established odds of 3 million to one and 10 thousand to one against the DNA matching at random. Ten years later, a federal district judge conducted his own evidentiary hearing and, after deciding to disregard the DNA evidence, overturned the jury's verdict. Later, the Ninth Circuit upheld that ruling. When the U. S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Nevada's appeal, CJLF joined the case to argue that the lower federal courts ignored precedent and an Act of Congress in order to overturn this child rapist's conviction. The Court's unanimous per curiam opinion agreed, overturning the Ninth Circuit ruling. [CJLF brief in PDF.]
