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Juan A. Rivera, Jr. (born October 31, 1972) is an American man who was wrongfully convicted three times for the 1992 rape and murder of 11-year-old Holly Staker in Waukegan, Illinois. He was convicted twice on the basis of a confession, one that he claims was coerced. No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene. DNA testing done in 2004 on semen taken from the crime scene ruled out Rivera as the source; however, the prosecution argued that the semen sample came from previous consensual sex with another man, and Rivera was convicted a third time. His conviction was overturned by the appellate court, which took the unusual step of barring prosecutors from retrying Rivera, and he was released. After his release, Rivera's attorneys asked the courts to order genetic testing on Rivera's shoes, which the prosecution had tried to enter into evidence in 1993. The shoes had Staker's blood on them, but the prosecution withdrew the evidence prior to Rivera's first trial when it was discovered that the shoes were not available for sale anywhere in the United States until after the murder. DNA testing conducted on the shoes in 2015 indicated that the blood indeed belonged to Staker, but also contained another genetic sample – one that matched the semen sample. Rivera's defense team insists that this is proof not only that the blood was planted, but that the real killer's DNA was inadvertently planted as well. The DNA has yet to be matched to an individual but has been linked to DNA from another home invasion and murder. The man convicted of that crime also claims he was wrongfully convicted.〔〔 Following his exoneration, Rivera was awarded $20 million, the largest wrongful conviction settlement in United States history, including $2 million from John E. Reid & Associates, who were known for the Reid technique of questioning suspects. This technique has been widely criticized for its history of eliciting confessions that were later determined to be false. Rivera was questioned twice at Reid headquarters by an employee of the company during his interrogation, which lasted for several days.〔〔 ==Murder of Holly Staker== On August 17, 1992, police received a call from a woman in Waukegan, Illinois, who reported that the babysitter for her two children, 11-year-old Holly Staker, was missing and the back door to the apartment had been kicked in. Staker's partially clothed body was found on the floor of the children's bedroom. She had been raped and stabbed to death. Staker sustained 30 stab wounds in addition to being strangled. Vaginal and anal swabs tested positive for semen.〔 Evidence technicians took fingerprints and blood samples found in the bedroom and near the kitchen sink, where it appeared someone had washed blood off their hands.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Juan Rivera (wrongful conviction)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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