| First Name | Charles |
| Last Name | Chatman |
| Year of Conviction | 1981 |
| Year of Exoneration | 2008 |
| Testing inculpated culprit | Cold Hit |
| State of Conviction | Texas |
| Trial, Bench Trial, or Guilty Plea | Trial |
| Type of Crime | Rape |
| Death Sentence | No |
| Gender of Exoneree | Male |
| Race of exoneree | Black |
| Juvenile | No |
| Type of Innocence Defense |
|
| Description / Quotes from Testimony Concerning Defense | ● No testimony in support of alibi, aside from the defendant’s own testimony. |
| Did the defendant testify at trial? | Yes |
| Quotes from Exoneree Testimony | “Q: Did you rape that woman that night in her house like she says? A: No sir I didn’t and that’s the honest truth.” |
| Types of evidence at trial |
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| Type of Forensic Evidence |
|
| Types of Flawed Forensics |
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| Brief Quote / Description of Testimony | Chatman was a Type O secretor and consistent with that, H substances were detected on the rape kit evidence. The victim was a Type A (though apparently no test was conducted to assess the victim’s secretor status). |
| Identity of eyewitness |
|
| Lineup Procedures |
|
| Suggestive Procedures | Yes ● Victim not told attacker might not be in line-up |
| Quotes from testimony #1 | Victim described “admonition to look carefully at the features” but to ignore any facial hair Officer recalled telling victim “to look through the photographs, all six photographs, from the first one to the last one, if there was anyone that could have possibly been the assailant to so advise me.” |
| Unreliable Identification? | No ● Discrepancy in description – did not mention missing teeth Did not mention that had seen attacker previously in the neighborhood |
| Quotes from testimony #2 | Victim got “a good glance” at attacker but said she did not notice his teeth. |
| Highest level reached | NR |