Douglas Dilosa In September 1986, 34-year-old Douglas Dilosa was found bound with rope in his Kenner, Louisiana home, and his wife was found strangled upstairs. Dilosa, who is white, told police that he was awakened by a noise, and when he went downstairs to investigate, he was beaten and bound by two black men.
Police suspected that Dilosa, who was in financial trouble, had murdered his wife for the insurance money.
In July 1987, a jury convicted Dilosa of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
After his conviction, Dilosa requested his case records and received a police report that had been withheld from his defense attorneys at trial. The report provided information that at the time of the crime, police were investigating a similar break-in at a nearby condominium, that a hair found in the rope used to strangle his wife was from an African-American, that unidentified fingerprints were found at the crime scene, and that a witness saw two black men leaving Dilosa’s condominium complex early on the morning of the murder.
Dilosa’s attorney filed a state law petition for a writ of habeas corpus based on the newly discovered evidence.
In 2001, the petition was granted and Dilosa's conviction was vacated. Dilosa was released on bond in 2001. In January 2003, the prosecution dismissed the charges.
Dilosa filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages, but the lawsuit was dismissed. He was awarded $330,000 in compensation by the state of Louisiana.
- Stephanie Denzel |