Thomas Murphy was convicted of first and second degree sexual assault in Wood County, Wisconsin in 1998 for a crime that occurred in 1996.  After conviction, the Wood County trial court, granted him a new trial based on evidentiary errors, including faulty reliance on hair comparison testing that suggested that hairs found at the scene came from Murphy when in reality the evidence was inconclusive.  Murphy was acquitted and released at his second trial, in 1999, two and a half years after he was taken into custody.

 

- Michael S. Perry