DNA frees man after more than 12 years in prison

[May 29, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- DNA testing has exonerated a man of a rape conviction that had kept him in an Illinois prison for more than 12 years.

The New York-based Innocence Project says Dean Cage is the 29th person in Illinois exonerated by post-conviction DNA evidence.

The 41-year-old man was released from prison late Tuesday after Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel dismissed the conviction at the request of prosecutors.

Cage was convicted of assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 1994 and was sentenced to 40 years behind bars. He insisted he was home at the time of the attack.

[Associated Press]

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