Since 1989, 3,615 individuals convicted of crimes have been exonerated in the U.S., freed after their conviction was reversed. Post-conviction DNA testing played a part in 606 of these exonerations.
Milwaukee brothers Robert and David Bintz became the latest additions to this disturbing list on September 25, after investigative genetic genealogy (IGG)—which relies on genealogical and genetic data to reverse engineer family trees—helped reveal the true perpetrator of the crime. In many ways, their cases are typical of other wrongful convictions: false confessions and jailhouse informants provided the primary evidence against them at trial. Yet their stories are unusual because of the underlying investigative method essential to their exonerations.
The Bintz brothers are only the third and fourth individuals exonerated with the help of IGG. While the revolutionary investigative technique has, since its inception in 2018, primarily helped identify human remains and perpetrators of violent crimes, the dual exonerations of the Bintz brothers demonstrate its power as a tool of justice generally. It’s one that more wrongful conviction organizations should pursue. The case is also a testament to the need for legislative reform to address injustices in Wisconsin’s criminal legal system, particularly for those who are found innocent after serving time in prison.
On August 3, 1987, Sandra Lison—a mother of two—disappeared from the Good Times Tavern in Green Bay, Wis., where she worked as a bartender. The following morning, hikers discovered Lison’s body in a nearby forest. She had been strangled, and police noted the presence of semen, which was later found to match a blood spot found on Lison’s dress. For 11 years, law enforcement was unable to identify a viable suspect in the case.
Then, in 1998, while serving time for an unrelated crime, David Bintz’s cellmate claimed that David had made incriminating statements about Lison in his sleep. The cellmate (and others) claimed that David also implicated his brother, Robert, in the crime. Under interrogation, David confirmed the statements, even as he also denied involvement in the crime. Reviewing their notes from the initial investigation, law enforcement discovered that David and Robert had bought beer from Lison on the night of her disappearance and had been upset about the price difference between a case of beer and four six-packs. With this confession and motive evidence, the two brothers were each tried for Lison’s murder.
At trial, the prosecution knew that the only DNA evidence in the case, which came from semen and blood on the victim, excluded the Bintz brothers. Thus they argued that both substances were unrelated to Lison’s death. Despite no physical evidence tying them to the scene, the brothers were each convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2019 the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP) took on the case of Robert Bintz, convinced that the DNA evidence from the crime scene was the key to his exoneration—and to the identification of the true perpetrator.
Just a year before, IGG had made headlines for helping to identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer and Marcia King as the Jane Doe previously known as Buckskin Girl. GNIP had followed the development of IGG as it played a role in the 2019 exoneration of Christopher Tapp, and the group recognized its potential to help exonerate the Bintz brothers.
You can read more at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-genealogy-can-stop-violent-criminals-and-free-the-wrongly-convicted/ .