Oklahoma prosecutors agree to free man after DNA test clears him in rape case

OKLAHOMA CITY - A man who has been in prison for 14 years for rape should be freed because DNA tests show he did not commit the crime, prosecutors said Tuesday. <br> <br> Tulsa County assistant district attorney Steve Sewell said he planned to join with defense attorneys in asking a judge to free Arvin McGee Jr., who was convicted of the 1987 rape of a Tulsa woman. <br> <br> McGee, 39, is imprisoned at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington, serving a 298 year sentence. <br> <br> Julie Gardner, McGee&#39;s attorney, and Sewell were to go before District Judge Linda Morrisey in Tulsa to seek McGee&#39;s release. <br> <br> Gardner and Sewell said they expected the judge to quickly approve the request, allowing McGee to be released by Tuesday evening. <br> <br> Lawyers with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System had a lab test a semen slide from the case. The test showed the semen did not match McGee&#39;s DNA. <br> <br> DNA testing was not available when McGee was tried. <br> <br> Further DNA testing of evidence in the rape kit used at trial backed up the lab&#39;s finding, prompting prosecutors to agree to his release. <br> <br> McGee was convicted of a 1987 rape of a 20-year-old Tulsa woman, who said a man grabbed her from behind at the coin-operated laundry where she worked, locked her in a restroom and tied her up. <br> <br> The man carried her out of the building over his shoulder, drove her to a secluded place and sexually assaulted her, the victim told police. <br> <br> At photo lineups two months after the attack, the victim initially picked another man as her attacker. Two months later, she took &#34;10 to 15 minutes&#34; to pick out McGee as the assailant, Gardner said. <br> <br> McGee&#39;s 1988 conviction was thrown out, and a second trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted at his third trial. <br> <br> DNA testing has exonerated seven Oklahoma inmates and 101 inmates nationwide. <br> <br> McGee&#39;s case was not connected to testimony by former Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist, whose forensic work is the subject of state and federal investigations. She has been accused by the FBI of doing shoddy work and testifying beyond her expertise. Authorities have been reviewing hundreds of cases on which she worked. <br> <br> <br>

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