Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

DALLAS (AP) ― The Innocence Project on Friday asked a Texas court to toss out the convictions that sent an innocent man to prison for 25 years and keeps him on probation today.

DNA testing last year showed Steven Phillips was innocent of a 1982 sexual assault and burglary. In January, additional testing found that DNA evidence from the rape matched another man, Sidney Alvin Goodyear, who died in prison about a dozen years ago.

Phillips, who is on parole and lives in a halfway house as part of his probation, still has an extensive criminal record because he pleaded guilty to nine related sex crimes over fear that he would receive a life sentence if convicted, his lawyer said. Prosecutors now believe those sex crimes were also committed by Goodyear.

The Innocence Project said Friday there is a "wide range of clear evidence" showing that Phillips is innocent of all 11 crimes. Lawyers for the group, a New York-based legal center that tries to overturn wrongful convictions, argue that Goodyear committed all of the assaults and burglaries.

They also accuse Dallas police of improperly focusing on Phillips and ignoring evidence that pointed to Goodyear, originally a suspect before police targeted Phillips.

A hearing will likely be set by late July in state district court in Dallas in which two judges will decide whether Phillips' convictions should be vacated.

Innocence Project attorney Jason Kreag praised the Dallas County District Attorney's Office for its efforts to determine whether Phillips was guilty of the crimes that kept him in prison and now on parole.

"They have been remarkably cooperative and thorough in reinvestigating these crimes since we have identified Goodyear," Kreag said.

Mike Ware, who heads the Conviction Integrity Unit in the Dallas County DA's office, said his investigator has been challenged by the lack of DNA evidence in the other cases on Phillips' record.

"Obviously, it makes the task quite a bit more difficult," Ware said. "But it looks like there is certainly some corroboration on at least some of the cases, that even though there is no DNA, that Goodyear committed those offenses as well."

If a judge were to vacate Phillips' convictions, the effect would be more than just the symbolic clearing of his criminal record. Phillips remains on parole because of a 45-year sentence he received for pleading guilty to a sexual assault. That parole would end if his convictions are tossed.

Phillips -- an acknowledged Peeping Tom with a history of exposing himself -- was found guilty of burglary and aggravated sexual assault in separate trials stemming from the same incident: the May 1982 home invasion and sexual assault of a Dallas woman. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on each conviction, to be served concurrently.

Prosecutors then charged Phillips in nine related sex crimes from other cases, believing the string of assaults were committed by the same man.

Among those crimes to which he pleaded guilty was a string of assaults in which the perpetrator went into aerobics classes and at gunpoint forced women to undress and perform sexual acts.

About two years ago, an Innocence Project staffer found a 20-year-old newspaper story about a man who committed similar crimes at fitness centers. That man was Goodyear, who died in a Texas prison while serving a 45-year sentence for burglary of a habitation with intent to commit sexual assault with a deadly weapon.

A DNA test last summer excluded Phillips as the rapist from the May 1982 assault and subsequent testing earlier this year on a blood sample from Goodyear's autopsy revealed a match to the dead felon.

Phillips was released from prison in 1996, but his parole was revoked a year later when he was arrested and convicted for peeping into an apartment. He stayed in jail until last year, when he was again released on parole. He currently lives at a Dallas halfway facility called The Way Back House, Kreag said.

DNA testing has proven the innocence of 18 Dallas County men since 2001, which is a national high, according to the Innocence Project (click here for coverage of those exonerations). Texas leads the nation with 32 such exonerations.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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