Wrongly convicted man set free after 16 years

At Robert "Rider" Dewey's sentencing in 1995, then-Mesa County District Judge Charles Buss was quoted in local media as saying, "I am happy to impose it (a life sentence) on you."

Dewey replied: "There's still a killer out there."

A Colorado man wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a woman found strangled with a dog leash was exonerated on the basis of new DNA evidence and set free on Monday after spending more than 16 years behind bars.

Robert "Rider" Dewey, 51, who had been incarcerated since 1995, walked out of a courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, a free man, accompanied by a woman he had been corresponding with from prison for the past year.

Dewey was sentenced to life without parole for the rape and murder of 19-year-old Jacie Taylor in the western Colorado town of Palisade.

New analysis showed that additional DNA samples matched the DNA of Douglas Thames, who is already serving a life sentence without parole for the 1989 rape and strangulation of Susan Doll, 39, of Fort Collins, according to court papers filed in the Dewey case.

Thames' DNA information was not contained in a statewide database for inmates back then.

I get to step outside there, touch a tree, get a dog and kiss my girl," Dewey said on his release.

A smiling Dewey also told reporters he was not angry about the injustice, asking,"What good would it do me?"

"They threw me into a dark hole with just a pinhole of light," he said. "I had to stay positive." 

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