Men convicted in 1986 rape cleared by DNA evidence

SAVANNAH - Two men whose rape convictions had been overturned based on DNA evidence were officially cleared Monday when prosecutors decided not pursue a new trial in the 1986 rape. <br> <br> Samuel Scott of Savannah, who served 15 years of a life sentence before he was paroled in September 2001, said he felt vindicated. <br> <br> Scott and Douglas Echols both were convicted based on the testimony of a woman who said she had been abducted and taken to Scott&#39;s Savannah home, where Echols held her down on a mattress while Scott raped her. <br> <br> Their conviction was overturned in July after the Innocence Project, an organization that has helped reverse the convictions of dozens of defendants nationwide, ordered DNA tests that showed the blood samples from both men did not match the sperm prosecutors used in the case. <br> <br> But David Lock, chief assistant district attorney for Chatham County, stopped short of declaring the men innocent. <br> <br> ``It was not an exoneration. It was a decision not to prosecute.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Echols served more than four years of a 15-year sentence before he was paroled in 1991. He later served an additional 15 months for parole violations.

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