# Wow... truth is stranger than fiction - "Could this be happening? A man's nightmare made real"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-truth-is-stranger-than-fiction-could-this-be-happening-a-mans-nightmare-made-real/586990>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 27, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-truth-is-stranger-than-fiction-could-this-be-happening-a-mans-nightmare-made-real/586990 "2011-06-27T03:47:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-truth-is-stranger-than-fiction-could-this-be-happening-a-mans-nightmare-made-real/586990/81 "2011-06-30T01:11:43Z")

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On the subject, at lunch today I read [this _Vancouver Sun_ article](http://www.vancouversun.com/news/wrongfully+convicted+rape+cases+seeks+damages+suit/5022055/story.html) about a man who is suing after spending nearly three decades in prison for a series of rapes of which he is actually entirely innocent.

I found the article frustrating because it declared that he was categorically innocent but didn’t go very far in explaining how this was determined. The most detail they go into is:

> [@](#):
>
> Henry was convicted in 1983 of three counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape and five of indecent assault involving eight women between 1980 and 1982, and was designated a dangerous offender.
> 
> He was convicted solely on identification by the victims. But the appeal court found the identification was weak and the trial judge erred by instructing the jurors that they could infer consciousness of guilt from Henry’s resistance to being put in a police lineup on May 12, 1982.

After reading the article, I was left wondering how the hell eight different women could independently provide something that adds up to a “weak” identification, and wondering if the appeals court wasn’t obligated to release someone who was basically a monster on the strength of some minor judicial error. Should I feel any sympathy for this guy, really?

Happily, a little [hole-in-the-wall freely-distributed micro-local paper](http://www.nsnews.com/Lynn+Valley+sues+wrongful+conviction/5025937/story.html) provided the decent journalism that the supposedly better of our two city papers did. (Both of our major local papers are little better than fish-wrap.) Anyway, this guy ended up being sent up the river for 30 years because… Well, _ultimately_ because:

> [@North Shore News](#):
>
> Henry opted to represent himself at his trial…

…but the proximate cause was:

> [@](#):
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> After his initial arrest, Henry was put in an identification lineup with six police officers, all of whom were noticeably taller than Henry and none of whom had red hair. Henry refused to participate, and was being forcibly restrained by a handful of officers while the victim made her selection.
> 
> Another victim was shown a photo lineup in which Henry was clearly older than the other men, and the only one photographed in front of a jail cell.

Also, semen was recovered at the crime scenes but no blood typing was done to confirm a match, and (most compellingly) the series of rapes which was terrorizing the neighbourhood continued after his arrest and incarceration, and eventually another man was arrested and served five years for the crimes. (Maybe they figured enough punishment had been meted out for these rapes?)

In some ways it’s not as outrage-making as the California case, because the element of vindictive evil isn’t there and the people who put him there were probably earnest in their belief that he was responsible - but still. To be branded as a serial rapist and lose twenty-seven years of your life… that’s pretty hard.

For the “Always a bad idea” thread: _Representing yourself in a high-stakes criminal case_.

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**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-truth-is-stranger-than-fiction-could-this-be-happening-a-mans-nightmare-made-real/586990/82 "2011-06-30T06:05:25Z")

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> [@DHMO](#):
>
> From the article link:

Thanks. I’d posted my question prior to Part 2 going uip on the web. I should have just been mroe patient 😃

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