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'In a lot of ways, I still am suffering'(Houston Chronicle (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jun. 23--Josiah Sutton is late, but not because of the complications that so often have disrupted life for this exonerated man in the three years since he was released from prison: unpaid parking tickets and cell phone bills or the transience of sleeping on a different friend's couch week after week. Instead, Thursday, Sutton arrived late at his mother's apartment for a reason most mundane, even responsible. "I'm sorry, the Laundromat was busy," he said, unloading armfuls of clean clothes from the backseat of his car. "I needed to get this done." For Sutton, 24, life after exoneration wavers between responsibility and immaturity, forgiveness and anger. His thoughts even vacillate on the recent arrest of a suspect in the 1998 rape for which he served more than four years. "In one way, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that was not given to me," Sutton said standing in the living room of his mother's apartment, where he stays when not with friends. "In another way, I had to suffer for him and, in a lot of ways, I still am suffering." Still unsettled Sutton teeters between embracing an existence as an adult and indulging in irresponsibility. He gave his mother and daughter a portion of the $60,000 the state paid him last year, but he squandered the rest in six months, buying three cars and partying. Sutton is in contact with people interested in building an organization to help others wrongfully convicted, but he also dreams of making it as a music producer. Sutton was 16 when he was arrested in the 1998 rape of a Houston woman who was taken from her apartment complex at gunpoint, raped by two men and dumped in a Fort Bend County field. The woman thought she recognized Sutton when she saw him walking down the street five days after the attack. He was convicted the next year largely on the weight of testimony from a former analyst at the Houston Police Department crime lab who told jurors that DNA tests performed on samples from the attack were an "exact match" for Sutton's DNA profile. Open but inactive Sutton was serving a 25-year sentence when his case received new scrutiny in early 2002 amid concerns about the accuracy of tests performed by the HPD crime lab. A growing forensic scandal cast doubt on evidence in thousands of cases and prompted prosecutors to order new tests on hundreds that included DNA evidence processed by HPD analysts, including Sutton's. New tests performed in March 2002 excluded Sutton as a suspect in the case. He was released from prison, pardoned the next year and deemed eligible for more than $118,000 in reparations from the state -- the first installment of which he received last year. Although the new tests identified the DNA profile of one suspect and gave clues about the identify of the second, police had few leads. The case remained open but inactive until May, when a DNA database maintained by the state Department of Public Safety found that the DNA profile taken from a convicted felon, Donnie Lamon Young, matched the evidence from the crime scene. Young was arrested last week and charged with aggravated sexual assault. Learning and rebuilding Sutton said he has no curiosity about Young and will not attend his trial. "Let's just say, if he's the one who did it, that I don't think we would be two good people to put in a room together," Sutton said. Instead, Sutton said, he would like to focus on continuing to rebuild his life and learning to be a responsible adult. "It's still a daily challenge for me," he said. Sutton had a harsh lesson in accountability and "frightening" reminder of his years of incarceration earlier this month when an unpaid traffic ticket turned into a warrant and he spent about 30 hours in jail. "I can't even tell you about the flashbacks I had," he said. "It is the last place I ever want to be -- even for a parking ticket." Sutton is focusing on how he will spend the final installment of his state reparations, scheduled to arrive in September. "I am going to make better decisions this time and start a business or find a way to make the money grow," he said. "I don't regret the way I spent it the last time -- it was a learning experience and I have grown up." [email protected] |