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Mark Webb

Other Texas Cases With Mistaken Witness Identifications
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On January 7, 1985, a 24-year-old woman was abducted from a health club parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas.

The woman told police her abductor drove her to a lake where she was raped at knifepoint. The attacker then drove her back to the parking lot where she was dumped with her hands tied. She managed to free herself and called police.

The woman identified She identied 22-year-old Mark Webb as the perpetrator after being shown police photos.

She also identified him again at an in-person lineup.
 
Webb went to trial in Tarrant County Criminal District Court in May 1987. The victim identified him as her attacker. The proecution also presented serology results that could not exclude Webb from being the perpetrator. The defense called several witnesses who claimed that Webb was at work at the time of the incident.
 
The jury convicted Webb on May 20 1987. Webb was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was paroled in 1997 but was later returned to prison on a parole violation.

DNA testing was performed in late 1997, after defense lawyers for Webb filed a motion under a new Texas post-conviction DNA testing statute. The testing was carried out after prosecutors agreed to let Webb’s attorneys have access to the evidence.

After the testing excluded Webb, he was released on December 14, 2001. In 2002, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus and the charge was dismissed.
 
Webb was awarded $289,583 in state compensation. Webb died in 2005.

– Maurice Possley

Report an error or add more information about this case.

Posting Date:  Before June 2012
Last Updated: 11/26/2016
State:Texas
County:Tarrant
Most Serious Crime:Sexual Assault
Additional Convictions:
Reported Crime Date:1985
Convicted:1987
Exonerated:2002
Sentence:30 years
Race/Ethnicity:White
Sex:Male
Age at the date of reported crime:22
Contributing Factors:Mistaken Witness ID
Did DNA evidence contribute to the exoneration?:Yes