Innocence Read Online Free PDF Page A

remember the case,” Dobson continued. “It was big news back in the early nineties. Salazar was an illegal from El Salvador, part of a wave of immigrants who poured into the country during the final years of the war down there. A sizable community grew along the Dorchester-Roxbury border. A task force was formed in 1992 to root out many of those who were in the country illegally. It was a joint enforcement program between the INS and the Boston Police Department. Salazar’s name hit the list, and he was targeted for deportation.”
    “I remember.” Finn nodded. “He shot a cop, right? A woman?”
    “That’s what he was convicted of,” Dobson replied. “Allegedly, he tried to rape her, and then he shot her with her own gun. Madeline Steele was her name; she was part of the task force, stationed out of B-2, and she was the one going after Salazar—that was the motive provided at trial. She identified him, and they had his fingerprints on her gun—that was the evidence that put him away. He was sentenced to fifty years, no parole.”
    Finn turned to look at Kozlowski. “You were stationed out of B-2 for a while, weren’t you?”
    Kozlowski nodded, his features granite.
    “You know Steele at all?”
    Kozlowski nodded again.
    Finn turned back to Dobson. “Sounds like a pretty clean case. So what’s the problem?”
    “The problem is that a lot of the other evidence doesn’t line up. Salazar had an alibi—a solid one. Plus, another witness saw the perp running from the scene and said it wasn’t Salazar.”
    Finn shrugged. “That’s why we have juries, right? If the jury saw it differently, who am I to argue?”
    “There was a rape kit done at the time. No fluids turned up, but they apparently took scrapings of blood and skin from underneath the Steele woman’s fingernails.”
    “And?”
    “They never tested it. Never even told the defense it existed.”
    “I’m still not seeing a basis for a new trial,” Finn said. “DNA or not, it seems like this guy was most likely right for the shooting. Why would I want to get involved now, fifteen years later? Why would you, for that matter?”
    Dobson leaned back in his chair. “I do a lot of pro bono work with an organization called the New England Innocence Project.”
    Finn rolled his eyes. “I’ve heard of it. A bunch of do-gooders trying to get felons out of jail, right?”
    “Wrong, Mr. Finn. It’s a bunch of do-gooders trying to get innocent people out of jail. We identify cases where physical evidence exists that could prove definitively the guilt or innocence of people who have been convicted of a crime. If the evidence shows that the person is guilty, we close the books on that case. If it shows they’re innocent, though . . .”
    “And in this case, the skin and blood recovered from under Officer Steele’s fingernails prove Salazar is innocent?”
    Dobson shrugged. “We won’t know until it’s tested.”
    Finn pushed the file back at the attorney across the table. “So test it. What do you need me for?”
    “We’d love to, but the DA’s office and the city refuse to give us the samples to be tested. They say that the case has been decided, and they won’t open up the investigation again. We’re going in front of the judge in two days to argue our motion to force them to give us the evidence so we can run the tests ourselves.”
    Finn shook his head. “I still don’t see why you need me.”
    Dobson heaved a heavy sigh, folding his fingers together. “The motion’s going to be heard by Judge Cavanaugh.”
    “Ah,” Finn said. It had suddenly become clear why Dobson had come to him. “Are you going to try and act surprised when I tell you that Cavanaugh was my mentor when he was teaching at Suffolk Law School?”
    Dobson shook his head. “I wouldn’t insult your intelligence that way.”
    “You think the argument will be better received by Judge Cavanaugh if it’s coming from someone he knows? Someone he trusts?”
    “The