INNOCENT MAN IS EXONERATED AFTER 35 YEARS

Ada, OK – On October 10, Perry Lott was exonerated in Ada, Oklahoma, after 35 years of wrongful conviction and 30 years of incarceration for a 1987 rape and burglary. Post-conviction DNA testing performed in 2014 from the victim’s rape kit proved Mr. Lott did not commit this crime. The State’s case rested entirely on the victim’s identi@cation of Mr. Lott, which was based on a suggestive police lineup. No physical evidence connected Mr. Lott to the crime, and he did not match the physical description of the perpetrator.

Mr. Lott @led a motion to vacate his conviction in 2018 based on these exonerating DNA results and the problematic identi@cation, but former District Attorney Paul Smith opposed the motion. Instead, on the eve of Mr. Lott’s evidentiary hearing, DA Smith offered only to modify Mr. Lott’s sentence — an offer Mr. Lott ultimately accepted on July 9, 2018. In doing so, Mr Lott was freed immediately and avoided the uncertainty of an extended incarceration while his motion to vacate was litigated.

In 2023, the Innocence Project approached newly elected District Attorney Erik Johnson and asked him to vacate Mr. Lott’s conviction based on the exonerating evidence. DA Johnson undertook a thorough review of the case and concluded that post-conviction DNA test results were “favorable” to Mr. Lott, and his conviction should be vacated.

“Former District Attorney Smith’s opposition to the irrefutable evidence of Mr. Lott’s innocence was a blatant miscarriage of justice,” said Barry Scheck, Innocence Project’s co-founder and special counsel. “This unwillingness to acknowledge the truth in addition to the systemic factors at play in Mr. Lott’s wrongful conviction cost him 35 precious years — and have plagued other wrongful conviction cases in Ada for decades.”

In 2014, the survivor would tell an investigator that she was scared to pick the wrong man in the lineup and nothing speci@c made her choose Mr. Lott as the attacker.

Eyewitness misidenti@cation is the leading contributing factor of wrongful convictions and has contributed to 64% of the Innocence Project’s 245 exonerations and releases. And cross racial identi@cation, as in this case, is particularly challenging. The NRE’S report on Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022 found that 60% of sexual assault exonerees are Black, but less than a quarter of people in prison for sexual assault are Black. This suggests that Black people are almost 8 times more likely than white people to be falsely identi@ed and convicted of sexual assault.

“I have never lost hope that this day would come,” said Mr. Lott. “I had faith that the truth would prevail — even after 35 long years. I am grateful to everyone who supported me and helped in my @ght for freedom. I can @nally shut this door and move on with my life.”