|
 Their next step is to fight for exoneration, and that is what
their attorneys intend to pursue before the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals.
Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh and Cassandra Rivera were
released Monday night on their own recognizance. That was after a
judge decided to recommend that an appeals court vacate their 1998
convictions as tainted by faulty witness testimony.
The fourth woman, Anna Vasquez, was released on parole last year.
The women haven't been exonerated formally. Bexar County prosecutors
have said they don't intend to retry them if the appeals court
vacates the convictions. However, they disagree with the women's
attorneys that they should be declared formally innocent.
Exoneration would allow them to collect money Texas pays to the
wrongfully imprisoned.
The women and their attorneys were expected to describe their next
steps in their pursuit of exoneration later this week. The release
of Ramirez, Mayhugh and Rivera on Monday was delayed for about six
hours by paperwork issues with the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice.
The three emerged from the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio shortly
after 8 p.m. Monday, clasping their hands in one another's and
holding them high as tearful family members and friends surged
toward them. Each was dressed in fresh, new clothes brought to them
in advance by their families.
Rivera was introduced to her granddaughter for the first time. "I'm
your grandma. I'm your grandma, baby. You're beautiful!" she said
with a gasp.
They walked past reporters without comment before they climbed into
a minivan. As they left, family members repeated over and over to
them, "I love you. I love you."
Before the women emerged, Gloria Herrera was anxious about reuniting
with her daughter, Ramirez. "I've seen her, but I haven't held her,"
she said.
The three were convicted with Vasquez in 1998 of assaulting two of
Ramirez's nieces, ages 7 and 9, in successive attacks during a week
in 1994. The girls testified that the women held them by their
wrists and ankles, attacked them and threatened to kill them.
Ramirez was given a 37-year prison sentence. Mayhugh, Vasquez and
Rivera were given 15-year sentences.
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Their case came to the attention of attorneys affiliated with the
nonprofit Innocence Project of Texas and National Center for Reason
and Justice more than a decade after the women were imprisoned. The
groups investigate potential wrongful conviction cases and Mike
Ware, an attorney for the women who has worked on the case for two
years, filed petitions on their behalf last month with the state
appeals court.
They were convicted based on an expert's testimony that a vaginal
injury sustained by the 9-year-old girl could have been caused by an
assault. According to a petition filed by Ware, Dr. Nancy Kellogg
testified that the injury in question happened around the time of
the alleged assaults. But her conclusions have since been
discredited by current findings on science, attorneys have said.
Kellogg declined an interview request from The Associated Press last
week.
Texas has passed several laws to add new safeguards for eyewitness
identification, DNA testing and other issues in response to a rash
of wrongful-conviction cases. Ware used one law passed this year to
allow defendants to file appeals based on potential misuse of "junk
science" — something criminal justice advocates have targeted as a
frequent cause of wrongful convictions.
"It's a breath of fresh air," Vasquez told reporters after Ware
announced earlier Monday that they would be released. "It's an
awesome feeling. It's like a dream come true."
Herrera said she and her daughter hadn't decided what they would do
when Ramirez went free — other than she knew Ramirez wanted a pizza.
"In the beginning there was no hope but this day has finally
arrived," Herrera said. "I pray that this doesn't happen to anybody
else."
[Associated
Press; WILL WEISSERT]
Associated Press writer
Nomaan Merchant in Dallas contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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