Man wrongfully imprisoned 23 years on bogus bite mark evidence can sue dentists, detective

Two years after a panel of the same court reached a different conclusion, the full U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 6-4 decision Friday, has ruled a man wrongly imprisoned for 23 years can sue the detective and two dentists he says conspired to frame him with bogus bite-mark evidence.

Robert Lee Stinson was freed in 2009 after the Wisconsin Innocence Project found experts who rejected the dentists' conclusions that a bite mark on the homicide victim was left by Stinson. He sued the same year.

"Obviously our client is very excited," said Heather Lewis Donnell, his attorney.

"He's waited a long time for his day in court and he's finally going to get it," if the defendants don't persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

Stinson's suit has taken a slow, tortuous path through federal court. In 2013, a federal judge denied the defendants' efforts to have Stinson's case dismissed and said a jury should decide key facts in the matter. Retired detective James Gauger and dentists Lowell Johnson and Raymond Rawson appealed, and a panel from the 7th Circuit ruled in their favor two years ago.

The author of that decision, Judge Diane Sykes, dissented in Friday's "en banc" ruling, joined by Judges William Bauer, Joel Flaum and Daniel Manion. Again, she argued that while the dentists' opinions may have been gross errors in forensic analysis, they did not constitute a violation of Stinson's due process rights unless they knew at the time they were wrong.

Sykes wrote that no reasonable jury could conclude that the dentists fabricated their opinions and suppressed evidence of their lies. Both they and the detective Stinson claims solicited their testimony and helped hide the truth are entitled to qualified immunity, she concluded, meaning Stinson's suit should be dismissed.

Writing for the majority, Senior Judge Ann Williams wrote that the court didn't have jurisdiction to review a district judge's decision on a qualified immunity claim when the issues were factual, not legal.

She wrote that the court could hear the dentists' appeal on claims of absolute immunity, and rejected it.

In 2010, DNA from Stinson's purported victim's body led to a different suspect, who was charged in 2012 and ultimately confessed to the murder of 63-year-old Ione Cychosz of Milwaukee in 1984.

Stinson, 53, who lives in Milwaukee, works part time and helps out his sister, said he was taking a walk shortly after noon Friday when he got a call from Lewis Donnell.

"She was excited, and I was very excited," he said. He said he was warned early that litigation could drag on, though it didn't expect to go nearly nine years before trial.

"I guess you just have faith and trust in God," he said. "He gives you the strength and patience you need."