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AUGUST 15, 11:24 EDT Man Freed Ahead of Pardon by Bush By MARY LEE GRANT
CONROE, Texas (AP) — A 35-year-old man imprisoned for a decade for a rape conviction debunked by DNA evidence was freed Tuesday morning in advance of an expected pardon from Gov. George W. Bush. A subdued and teary Roy Wayne Criner walked out of the Montgomery County courthouse after State District Judge Mike Mayes granted him a personal recognizance bond. The bond would become null once the pardon was signed. ``The first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to take a hot bath,'' Criner said as he met his jubilant family as a free man. In the brief hearing before his release, Mayes complimented the one-time East Texas logger. ``Undaunted men and women have triumphed over adversity,'' Mayes said, comparing Criner to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. ``Imprisoned for 10 years for a crime he did not commit, we have Roy Wayne Criner.'' Mayes then asked Criner to ``refrain from anger and bitterness'' over losing nearly a third of his life to confinement. Criner remained calm throughout the hearing. Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 18-0 in favor of pardoning Criner, who was convicted of raping 16-year-old Deanna Ogg. Her naked and bludgeoned body was found in September 1986, about 20 miles northeast of Houston in New Caney. The board's recommendation was immediately forwarded to Bush, who was expected to sign the pardon Tuesday, spokeswoman Linda Edwards said. ``I agree with the Board of Pardons and Paroles that credible new evidence raises substantial doubt about the guilt of Roy Criner, and that he should receive a pardon,'' Bush said in a statement. Criner originally was charged with murder, a count dropped for lack of evidence. He was convicted of aggravated sexual assault. Criner's attorney, Michael B. Charlton, successfully argued DNA evidence found on a cigarette butt matched semen found in Ogg's body but neither matched Criner. On July 28, Montgomery County District Attorney Michael McDougal, Sheriff Guy Williams and Mayes asked the parole board to recommend the pardon. ``He'll be coming home to a big steak and a big, happy family,'' his mother, Jackie Criner, said Tuesday at the courthouse. ``There's a lot he hasn't seen before, like the Internet.'' The family hopes to collect $25,000 from a state fund for the wrongfully convicted. Criner cannot sue the state over his incarceration. Besides Criner, Bush also said Monday he would pardon Ronnie Mark Gariepy, 41, convicted in Hutchinson County of sexual assault. The board recommended Gariepy's pardon in February. The pardons Bush announced Monday bring to 18 the number he has issued since taking office nearly six years ago. Five of those pardons, including the latest two, are ``pardons for innocence.'' In all five cases, the district judge, district attorney and sheriff from the prosecuting county all recommended the pardon. Gariepy won the support of arresting authorities after his stepdaughter recanted her accusation he had sexually assaulted her on Oct. 5, 1991. The recantation came 18 months after he pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault of a child under 14, and received a 12-year sentence. Gariepy claimed he had been too drunk to remember if the rape happened. ——— |