Justice, long overdue, is on the horizon:

New lab tests show that DNA recovered from the semen-stained underwear of a 12-year-old rape victim couldn’t have come from the man who has served more than 27 years in prison for the crime.

Raymond Towler always has insisted he wasn’t the man who abducted two young children from a Cleveland park in 1981. For years, he wrote letters to lawyers, judges, lawmakers and the media.

“They’ve always said, ‘Do you have more evidence?’ ” Towler said in an interview at the Grafton Correctional Institution. “Now, I have it.”

Towler, 51, smiled and gave a thumbs-up as he was led back to his cell after hearing the news.

The Columbus Dispatch : DNA found on underwear doesn’t match convict’s.

Unfortunately, if your next president had his way, this would never have gone on for 27 years:

CHICAGO June 25, 2008 (AP)

The Associated Press

Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday he disagrees with the Supreme Court’s decision outlawing executions of people who rape children, a crime he said states have the right to consider for capital punishment.

source

Given Ohio’s deep and abiding love of human sacrifice, Mr. Towler would have been dead at least ten years ago.

People say that Obama’s support of (and grotesque desire to expand) this barbaric system is a price he must pay to be electable.  Bill Clinton certainly successfully exploited the execution of a legally innocent man, Ricky Ray Rector, in 1992.

But isn’t it odd that John Kerry came very close to winning the presidency in 2004 despite his absolute opposition to the death penalty?  And isn’t it interesting that the issue was never even raised in that campaign?