BNC News: Richard Horton discusses new trial, 16-year prison sentence

Richard Horton’s first day of freedom consisted of simply joys.

“Nothing extravagant,” Horton told BNC News for a video segment. “I don’t want to be famous, but I want to be around the people who supported me.”

Horton enjoyed a meal with his family along with attorney, Brian Howe of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and law students who supported his case for a new trial.

Horton, 45, was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 23 years in prison for allegedly breaking into a home in Columbus and shooting a victim in the leg during an armed robbery. He was released last week after 16 years and will receive a new trial thanks to the efforts of a team of attorneys and law students from OIP.

Howe says that new technological advances with DNA analysis helped convince a judge that Horton deserved a new trial. This case came out of an armed robbery in 2004 in Columbus, Ohio, during which a couple were robbed in a home by an individual with a gray hoodie.  A victim was shot with a 9mm pistol and police found a casing with a fingerprint on it. Horton offered an alibi but an eyewitness statement led to a conviction.

“In 2004, it was possible to get DNA testing on obvious things like blood and bodily fluids,” Howe told BNC News. “We are talking about DNA from a person who deposited skin cells on a shell casing when they touched it. The casing was fired so it was on a piece of metal that was very difficult to recover DNA from and subjected to a lot of heat.”

Howe says that only the past few years has the technology advanced to allow minute skin cells deposited on that tracing to be useful for analysis.

Listen to the video segment from BNC News online

Featured image of Richard Horton hugging Brian Howe of the Ohio Innocence Project.  Photo submitted.