Reply #10: There is no evidence to indicate the woman lied about being raped.

[Heidi]

DNA evidence has implicated two other men in her assault.

Over the last 18 months, genetic testing of evidence found on the victim’s clothing and at the scene of the attack had yielded no trace of Mr. Sonnier, the Harris County district attorney’s office said. Instead, it has implicated two other men. Both are felons and known associates. One is awaiting trial for a different rape.
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The victim identified Mr. Sonnier in a police lineup and at trial as one of her attackers.

The crime for which Mr. Sonnier was convicted occurred on Christmas Eve in 1985. Two men abducted a woman at a gas station in Alief, Tex., and then repeatedly raped her during a seven-hour drive to San Antonio. She escaped at 4 a.m. Six months later, she picked Mr. Sonnier’s picture out of a photo array. Later, in a police lineup and at trial, she identified him as one of the attackers. Read more

According to The Innocence Project:

Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.

While eyewitness testimony can be persuasive evidence before a judge or jury, 30 years of strong social science research has proven that eyewitness identification is often unreliable. Research shows that the human mind is not like a tape recorder; we neither record events exactly as we see them, nor recall them like a tape that has been rewound. Instead, witness memory is like any other evidence at a crime scene; it must be preserved carefully and retrieved methodically, or it can be contaminated.
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