Dean Cage Freed from Prison After Serving 12 Years for a Crime He Didn't Commit

May 30, 2008

DNA testing has exonerated a man who has served 12 years of a 40-year prison sentence. According to a spokesperson for the New York-based Innocence Project, which investigates wrongful convictions, the state attorney's office in Cook County, Illinois, has vacated the conviction of 41-year-old Dean Cage and has dismissed all charges against him stemming from the alleged rape of a teenage girl in 1994.

"I have my life back," Dean said during an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "It means the world to me. I never had a doubt. I am happy and blessed."

Dean's arrest and subsequent conviction came after the victim of an alleged rape identified him as her attacker.

According to court records, the victim, a 15-year-old girl, was walking to a school bus stop on the morning of November 14, 1994, when a man wearing a black leather jacket and hat grabbed her and pulled her into an alleyway. It was there, she later testified, that the man pushed her up against a wall and sexually assaulted her. Afterwards, the man fled on foot, and the girl notified police.

Using the girl's description of the attacker, police investigators created a computer-generated sketch of the suspect and circulated it throughout the neighborhood where the crime had occurred. Approximately one week later, police fielded a call from a tipster who told them that a man matching the description of the suspect was employed at a local meat-packing plant.

Armed with the tipster's information, police took the victim to Dean's place of work, and...

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Photo Credit: Illinois Department of Corrections