Opinion ID: 1813789
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: investigation of freeman

Text: On September 7, 1993, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent and an Omaha police officer from the robbery and sexual assault unit contacted Freeman, an African-American, at his apartment at 1503 North 48th Street and requested the voluntary submittal of blood samples. Freeman refused to submit to any tests, and when the officers returned with a court order, Freeman had fled. Freeman was subsequently found and arrested in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 5. In February 1994, while Freeman was jailed in the Douglas County Correctional Center, he was served with a court order requiring him to give blood and saliva samples. An Omaha police officer testified that Freeman stated: I'm not going to give you any; and if you take it from me, it isn't going to be easy. Freeman was subsequently restrained, and blood was drawn. All eight sexual assault victims were treated at local hospitals, where rape kits were prepared. The rape kits, which included vaginal swabs and a sample of Freeman's blood, were sent to the FBI laboratory for restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) DNA analysis. The FBI lab compared semen stains taken from each of the victims with the blood sample taken from Freeman. Audrey Lynch of the FBI DNA analysis unit testified that upon analysis, the DNA from Freeman's blood matched the DNA in the samples taken from the victims. Lynch concluded that the probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual from the African-American population who would have had the same DNA profile as the profile of Freeman was 1 in 6 million for seven of the cases. Lynch testified that with respect to the eighth victim, the probability ratio was different, 1 in only 300, because fewer loci matches were compared (further explanation is given in section IV below). On June 24, 1994, Freeman was charged by information with eight counts of first degree sexual assault and six counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony. The jury subsequently convicted Freeman on all eight counts of first degree sexual assault and four counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony. The trial court sentenced Freeman to 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count I, 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count II, 5 to 10 years' imprisonment on count III, 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count IV, 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count VI (previously count VIII), 5 to 10 years' imprisonment on count VII (previously count IX), 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count VIII (previously count X), 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count IX (previously count XI), 5 to 10 years' imprisonment on count X (previously count XII), 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count XI (previously count XIII), 5 to 10 years' imprisonment on count XII (previously count XIV), and 10 to 20 years' imprisonment on count XIII (previously count XV). Each of these sentences was to be served consecutively to the others and to any other sentence previously imposed, with no credit for time in custody by reason of the fact that in October 1993 Freeman's parole was revoked and he began serving a life sentence.