Man who pleaded guilty to rape allowed DNA test

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Rubin Weeks be granted the DNA test he maintains will prove him innocent of a 1991 kidnapping and rape of a Jackson woman. Originally Weeks pleaded guilty to the crimes and received two concurrent life sentences.

In a 4-2 ruling, the high court said Cape Girardeau Circuit Court Judge William Syler erroneously interpreted state law as precluding those who plead guilty from receiving post-conviction testing when he rejected Weeks' request in April 2002. The court returned the case to Syler with instructions to order a test comparing Weeks' DNA to a semen sample taken from the victim.

While calling the decision a victory, Phillip Gibson of the Midwestern Innocence Project in Kansas City, which represents inmates it believes to be falsely convicted, said it doesn't yet exonerate Weeks. The physical evidence first will have to be located and, if it remains intact, a protocol governing how the test will be conducted must be worked out with prosecutors.

Gibson said there was evidence his client had been beaten by police and jailers denied him insulin for his diabetes, putting him under great physical stress at the time of his plea.

"We've known for years that people who are found guilty or who even plead guilty may not actually be factually guilty," Gibson said. "In this ruling, the court says we are going to be looking for the truth wherever we can and will use any technological means available to do so."

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said the majority opinion is flawed in that it accepts as true the "pack of lies" put forth by the defense as to the facts of the case.

"This is much ado about nothing," Swingle said. "We will do the test and it will not help the defendant one iota."

The attorney general's office argued that state law only allows for post-conviction testing when the perpetrator's identity is disputed at trial. By pleading guilty, the state claimed, no trial was held as Weeks had identified himself as the perpetrator.

The majority opinion written by Judge Laura Denvir Stith says the state's position results from an "unduly narrow" reading of one section of the law that ignores other provisions that reference guilty plea proceedings.

"A person who pleaded guilty is not somehow 'more' guilty, or less deserving of a chance to show actual innocence, than one who went to trial," Stith wrote. "The question addressed by the statute is simply whether a person who has been convicted and sent to the department of corrections should nonetheless have the benefit of DNA testing when the person shows a reasonable probability that, if the results are exculpatory, the person would not have been convicted."

Chief Justice Ronnie White and judges Michael Wolff and Richard Teitelman joined Stith's opinion, which overturns an April 2003 decision by the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District affirming Syler's original ruling.

In their dissent, Judge William Ray Price Jr. and specially appointed Judge Victor Howard agree with the majority's interpretation of the law. However, they say that instead of ordering testing, the Supreme Court should allow Syler to hold a evidentiary hearing to determine if it is warranted in Weeks' specific case.

Howard, an appellate judge in Kansas City, was sitting in for Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr., who as a trial judge accepted Weeks' guilty pleas.

1991 crime

On Oct. 12, 1991, a 21-year-old woman was driving home from her shift at a Jackson motel when she was flagged down and abducted. She was taken to an isolated area of Bollinger County, raped and then left bound in duct tape.

The culprit was believed to have checked into the motel that evening, registering under the address of a Mississippi trucking company. An employee of the company said a drawing of the suspect resembled Weeks, who was charged with the crimes.

Serology tests of semen taken from a rape kit and of saliva on cigarette butts found in the motel room showed the perpetrator had Type A blood and was a "secretor" -- someone whose blood type can be determined from other bodily fluids.

While Weeks has Type A blood, a test of his saliva showed he is a "non-secretor." That test was dated one day before he pleaded guilty on Feb. 13, 1992. However, the potentially guilt-removing findings were not turned over to the defense. In a footnote to its opinion, the high court majority says it is making no judgment on whether Swingle purposely withheld the results to leverage a guilty plea.

The court also rejected the state's argument Weeks had an opportunity to request testing in 1992 and, having failed to do so, shouldn't get the chance now. The court said that although DNA testing existed at the time, Weeks had shown that it wasn't available to him as no lab in Southeast Missouri was equipped to perform the procedure.

Weeks, 43, is incarcerated at the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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