After years of proclaiming his innocence of a rape in Texas for which he was convicted, Michael Phillips, 57, had done his time and resigned himself to a lifetime of registering as a sex offender. But he was exonerated by DNA evidence Friday – without even requesting testing.
Phillips served a 12-year sentence in a Texas prison for the 1990 rape of a 16-year-old white girl, who misidentified Phillips as the offender. Phillips maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest– but served his time and then failed to register as a sex offender upon his release in 2002. In 2004, he was sentenced to six additional months in jail after being charged with violating his sex offender registration requirements. During that time, Phillips filed a challenge to his conviction in court—and when it failed, he gave up on his fight for innocence.
Then in May, systematic DNA testing by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit proved Phillips innocent. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Phillips’ case marks the first exoneration by DNA through systematic testing by a prosecutor’s office in which the wrongfully convicted individual had not requested the testing. Phillips’ case also became the 34th exoneration under Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ Conviction Integrity Unit. Under Texas law, Phillips is entitled to $80,000 compensation for each of his 12 years in prison and an additional $80,000 each year for life.
“I never imagined I would live to see my name cleared. I always told everyone I was innocent and now people will finally believe me,” said Phillips, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia disease.
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