AKRON, OH (WOIO) –
After spending nearly 15 years in prison, a former Akron Police Captain is now a free man.
Douglas Prade was released from the Madison Correctional Institution Tuesday, around 4:30 p.m.
This after the court overturned his conviction and a judge ruled Prade is innocent of aggravated murder.
Prade was convicted in the 1997 murder of his ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade. She was killed the day before Thanksgiving in 1997.
Tests indicate crime scene DNA did not come from Douglas Prade. A jury convicted him in 1998.
Summit County Prosecuting Attorney Sherri Bevan Walsh announced that her office will be appealing Judge Judy Hunter’s ruling exonerating Prade of the murder.
“This is a gross misapplication of the law, and we will be appealing Prade’s exoneration. The defendant had to present new evidence so convincing that no juror would have found him guilty, and he failed to do so,” said Prosecutor Walsh. “The DNA evidence presented by the Ohio Innocence Project on behalf of Prade is contaminated and unreliable. It does not prove innocence.”
Dr. Margo Prade was found shot to death in her minivan outside her medical practice in November 1997.
Douglas Prade was convicted of her murder, along with wiretapping charges, and sentenced to life in prison.
The Ohio Innocence Project took up Prade’s claim of innocence and petitioned the Court for his release or at least a new trial.
They based their motion on additional DNA testing that they say excludes Prade as a contributor to the partial male DNA profiles present in the area where Dr. Margo Prade was bitten.
SOURCE: 19actionnews.com
Article and Picture Courtesy of WOIO 19 Action News
LOCAL: Former Akron Police Chief’s Murder Conviction Overturned by Judge was originally published on wzakcleveland.com
