Protesters Call For Stop To Moses-El's New Trial
DENVER (CBS4)- As jury selection got underway Friday, petitions were delivered to the Denver District Attorney demanding that the trial of Clarence Moses-El be called off.
He was released from prison in December 2015 after serving 28 years of his sentence for a 1987 conviction in a brutal rape.
He was allowed to leave prison after another inmate wrote a letter to Moses-El saying he had a lot on his mind and then verbally confessed to the crime. But the Denver DA claims that inmate, LC Jackson later recanted that confession.
The DA's office decided to proceed with a retrial ordered by the judge after consulting with the victim. It is not known what she said.
DNA might have been a crucial factor in the case, but that evidence was lost by Denver police.
The victim's identification of Moses-El as her attacker came after she previously gave three other men's names. Moses-El was named after the woman emerged from a dream.
A group from the Greater Denver Ministerial Alliance, the NAACP, and ACLU gathered outside
the DA's office with petition signatures from people who signed on line asking that the trial be stopped.
Reverend Patrick Demmer called it an "injustice." He noted Denver DA Mitch Morrissey has
only a short time left in office. The reverend said it's an injustice against African-Americans
and all citizens with tax dollars being wasted on this "ridiculous" trial.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
