Article: State standards on evidence helped free innocent man

By Luther Turmelle North Bureau Chief

Kenneth Ireland, the man who served 21 years in prison for a murder that new DNA tests proved he did not commit, can thank state statutes governing the preservation of evidence for his new-found freedom.

Without the availability of DNA samples upon which new and more definitive tests could be performed, Ireland would still be sitting in prison, serving his 50-year sentence for the 1986 rape and murder of Barbara Pelkey of Wallingford.

Connecticut's standards for preserving evidence in cases in which suspects are convicted often surpasses that of federal cases, according to an area legal expert.

"What's amazing to me about this (the Pelkey case) is that ...

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