Fain released from Death Row after DNA evidence voids conviction for Nampa killing
THIS STORY ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 24, 2001.
Charles Fain became a free man Thursday, after spending more than 17 years on Death Row for the murder of a 9-year-old Nampa girl.
Fain won his release Thursday, after DNA evidence raised questions about his guilt and prosecutors decided not to retry his case.
Fain left the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise about 4 p.m., just two hours after Canyon County Prosecutor David Young announced he was dismissing the case against Fain.
“Thank God for DNA,” Fain said after emerging from the prison gates.
He is the first condemned prisoner released from Death Row and confinement in Idaho because of DNA testing.
He was convicted of the 1982 drowning murder and sexual assault of Daralyn Johnson, 9, who was abducted while walking to school in Nampa.
The girl’s body was found along the Snake River by a fisherman three days after she was abducted.
Fain, 52, a former handyman, had long said he was innocent.
In July, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered him released or retried after DNA tests showed that pubic hairs found on Daralyn’s clothing were not Fain’s.
Winmill ordered Fain removed from Death Row, but Fain chose to remain in the same cell where he’d been living.
Dressed in a gray T-shirt and speaking in a soft voice, Fain told reporters gathered outside the prison Thursday that he knew he was innocent.
“It had to work out sooner or later,” he said.
He also said he couldn’t put his feelings into words. “It’s all new ... (to) get used to it,” he said.
One of his attorneys, Frederick Hoopes of Idaho Falls, said Fain isn’t used to making decisions after years in prison, and he must go through a period of “decompression.”
“He’ll kind of take it day by day,” Hoopes said.
Fain is considering staying with his spiritual adviser and won’t be living in Boise, Hoopes said.
Details on where Fain will live weren’t available.
Fain moved to the Nampa neighborhood where Daralyn Johnson lived just after the girl’s 1982 abduction.
Young announced at a 2 p.m. news conference that while some evidence suggests that Fain was involved, “There is insufficient evidence at this time to prove Fain’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Recent DNA testing has proven that there was at least one other person involved in the case, but there is no forensic evidence proving Fain’s involvement,” Young said.
“Justice requires we dismiss the case against Mr. Fain.”
Fain’s case was one of the first in the country in which scientists used mitochondrial DNA, which is found in hair, to determine whether it belonged to a particular suspect.
Such technology was only recently developed.
Young read a statement from Daralyn’s family that said, “We are in complete support of our judicial system and all of those involved in the reinvestigation of his case.
“We are confident that we will have closure and that all those involved will be brought to justice.”
Young said the investigation into the murder will continue, although he acknowledged that the passage of time makes it difficult.
“We’re going to give it our best shot,” he said.
Fain’s release was the climax of a whirlwind afternoon.
Just as Young’s news conference in the Canyon County Courthouse ended, Hoopes and another defense attorney, Spencer McIntyre of Seattle, walked in.
Hoopes said he wasn’t troubled by Young’s statement that he hasn’t excluded Fain as a suspect.
“That piece of evidence (the hair) is really our evidence now.” Hoopes said. “It’s exculpatory.”
Then an order for Fain’s release, signed by 3rd District Judge Sergio Gutierrez, was handed to the defense lawyers.
They sped to the penitentiary to walk their client to freedom.
The judge’s order was “without prejudice,” meaning Fain could be charged again with proper evidence.
But, Hoopes said, “The possibility of him being prosecuted is extremely remote.”
Chronology of Charles Irvin Fain case
Here is a chronology of highlights in the case of once-condemned prisoner Charles Irvin Fain.
Feb. 24, 1982: Daralyn Johnson, 9, of Nampa, fails to return home from school. Police determine she did not arrive at school that morning.
Feb. 27, 1982: Daralyn’s body found by fishermen along the Snake River.
March 7, 1983: Fain arrested.
Oct. 26, 1983: Fain’s murder trial begins.
Nov. 4, 1983: Jury finds Fain guilty of abducting, sexually assaulting and drowning Daralyn.
Feb. 17, 1984: Third District Judge James Doolittle sentences Fain to death.
Oct. 25, 1988: Idaho Supreme Court affirms Fain’s conviction but remands the case for resentencing, holding that Doolittle improperly weighed aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
Dec. 18, 1989: Doolittle again sentences Fain to death.
Jan. 4, 1993: After appeals fail in state courts, Fain’s lawyers initiate federal appeals proceedings.
Aug. 11, 1999: Fain files motion to conduct DNA testing on pubic hairs obtained during Daralyn’s autopsy. The state does not object.
March 13: Fain’s attorneys file report with U.S. District Court concluding that the hair from Daralyn’s sock was not Fain’s.
March 23: U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill grants state’s motion to test two additional pubic hairs recovered from Daralyn’s panties.
June 28: State receives a report concluding that the hairs from Daralyn’s panties also were not Fain’s, and that all three hairs came from the same unidentified person.
July 6: Winmill grants a state request to vacate Fain’s conviction. Canyon County Prosecutor David Young is given 60 days to re-file charges or have Fain released from prison.
Thursday: Young announces he will not re-file murder charges against Fain, who is released from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution little more than an hour later.
