Brian Piszczek (Cuyahoga County, Ohio)

Factual background. In the early morning of July 29, 1990, the victim was at home alone when she heard a knock at her door. She looked through the peephole and asked the man to identify himself. The man said he was with the victim’s friend, who was parking the car. When he said this, the victim thought she recognized his voice as belonging to a man named Tim or Tom, who had been in her house before. The victim let the man inside; he immediately pulled out a knife, cut the victim on the neck, breast, and stomach, and then raped her.

On June 25, 1991, after 1 day of deliberations, a Cuyahoga County jury convicted Brian Piszczek of rape, felonious assault, and burglary. The court sentenced him to 15 to 25 years.

Prosecutor’s evidence at trial. The prosecution based its case on several points:

• The victim identified Piszczek from a photo array 2 months after the incident.
• The victim made an in-court identification of Piszczek.
• Piszczek testified that he had, in fact, been in the victim’s house once before with the mutual friend of the victim.
• Piszczek’s alibi was corroborated only by his girlfriend.

Postconviction challenges. After Piszczek’s conviction, a public defender took over his appeal. He filed an appeal on the basis of an improper photo identification process and ineffective counsel at trial (trial counsel never requested DNA testing, which was available at the time of conviction, and he was alleged to be ineffective in cross-examination of witnesses).

After the appeal was denied, the Innocence Project became involved. Its lawyers filed a release of evidence motion with the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The request was granted on March 11, 1994. All evidence was forwarded to Forensic Science Associates (FSA) for PCR testing.

DNA results. The report from FSA, issued on July 6, 1994, showed that PCR DQ alpha typing (as well as typing for five other polymarker genes) was performed on the blood of both Piszczek and the victim and on the sperm and nonsperm cell fractions of a vaginal swab, an anal swab, and a semen stain from a nightgown. The tests showed that Piszczek’s DNA did not match the tested evidence (see appendix for results).

Conclusion. The day after receiving the DNA test results, the prosecutor’s office asked a judge to overturn the conviction. On October 6, 1994, a Cuyahoga County judge declared Piszczek not guilty on all charges. Piszczek served 4 years in prison, including a period after his conviction was overturned.

This case profile is excerpted from Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science: Case Studies in the Use of DNA Evidence to Establish Innocence After Trial, a 1996 research report by the U.S. Department of Justice.