Non-IPNO exonerees
Gene Bibbins
Years transpired betweem initial arrest and exoneration - 17
Causes of Wrongful Conviction - Law Enforcement Misconduct, Flawed or Insufficiently Discerning Forensics, Eye-witness Misidentification
Exoneration Date - March 1, 2003
Gene Bibbins served seventeen years of a life sentence after he was convicted in East Baton Rouge Parish of raping a thirteen-year-old girl in 1987. The young victim identified Gene while he was sitting in the back of a police car, after initially giving a different description of her attacker. Gene always maintained his innocence while in prison. With the support of the national Innocence Project he was given access to DNA testing after proving to a judge that he could be innocent. In March 2003 a judge overturned the conviction when DNA evidence excluded Gene as the rapist. In 2008, Gene was awarded a combined $1.15 million after successfully suing the city of Baton Rouge for police misconduct in his case.
Gene Bibbins is also mentioned on the Innocence Project website.
Further Reading:
Angelette, Adrian "Convict Won't Go Back to Jail: Man Admits Rape But Was Cleared of Another After 17 Years in Prison." The Advocate [Baton Rogue] 12 November 2004
Angelette, Adrian "Judge Officially Overturns Bibbins' Rape Conviction" The Advocate [Baton Rouge] 12 March 2003: News.
Chan, Sun "DNA Test Frees Convicted Rapist" CBS News 6 December 2002
Perlstein, Michael "Freedom No Cure-All For Those Wrongly Convicted Jobs and Respect Often Remain Elusive" The Times Picayune, 30 March 2003
Roberts, Janet and Stanton, Elizabeth "A Long Road Back After Exoneration, and Justice is Slow to Make Amends." The New York Times 25 November 2007
Roberts, Penny Brown "City Sued in Wrongful Rape Conviction" The Advocate [Baton Rouge] 26 February 2004 Newz Room 10 July 2009
Sherrer, Hans "Gene Bibbins Awarded $1.15 Million Dollars for False Rape Conviction" Justice Denied Spring 2008: p 7