Kevin Martin spent 26 years behind bars for a wrongful murder conviction until a Washington D.C. Superior Court judge exonerated him on Monday, citing new DNA evidence that ultimately proved Martin’s innocence. In 1982, 19-year-old Ursula C. Brown was abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered in Southeast Washington D.C. Martin, despite maintaining his innocence from the time of his arrest, was sentenced in 1984 to 35 years to life in prison for manslaughter and robbery, after an FBI forensic unit erroneously linked him to a hair found at the crime scene.
With the help of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., Martin was released from prison. Machen cited new DNA testing of biological evidence from the crime scene, which discredited the former FBI forensic unit’s original finding that connected Martin to the crime. The DNA test ultimately linked William D. Davidson to the crime, who is serving a 65 years to life sentence for multiple offenses similar to Brown’s rape and murder. According to court papers written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael T. Ambrosino and lawyer Bernard Grimm, “DNA testing conducted at the expense of the government along with other factors…conclusively establish that Kevin Martin is innocent of the rape and murder of Ursula Brown.”
Kevin Martin is the fifth case in which Washington D.C. federal prosecutors have acknowledged that an FBI forensic unit made errors that led to a wrongful conviction.
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Read more about improper forensic science and the questions around hair analysis and other forms of forensics here.
