A man from Oklahoma who spent a total of three decades behind bars for a rape and burglary he did not commit has finally been exonerated for the crime, thanks to DNA evidence that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not responsible for what took place that fateful day.
Unfortunately, there’s no doubt the reputation of Perry Lott, 61, has already been brutalized beyond recognition as a result of the false accusations that were leveled at him and for the amount of time he spent in prison. The best years of his life were stolen from him. Time is the one resource we can never earn, build, or create more of, which makes this kind of situation so tragic.
According to the Daily Wire, Lott was released from prison in 2018 after results from a DNA test were first disclosed. But now, five years after the fact, the conviction against him has been vacated. If evidence proved he was not the suspect who committed the crime, why did it take so long for the criminal justice system to right this wrong?
It’s this sort of thing, coupled with the two-tiered system of justice that seems to exist for politicians and other people in positions of power both governmentally and culturally, that has made average Americans skeptical about receiving justice in this country, despite the fact we truly have the greatest system of laws and courts ever created.
“Mr. Lott has shown nothing but persistence and resilience in his 35 year long pursuit of justice. He would not give up on proving his innocence. Five years ago, all evidence pointed to his innocence, but he was denied justice. We are grateful to District Attorney Erik Johnson for his commitment to righting this wrong,” Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Adnan Sultan said in a statement.
Here’s more on Lott and the crime he was accused of committing from the DW report:
On November 2, 1987, a woman in Oklahoma received three anonymous phone calls at her home and one at the restaurant where she worked. During the fourth call, which came into the restaurant, a man told her there was a bomb in the restaurant and that it would explode at 7:30 p.m. The woman successfully evacuated the building and police found no bomb. The woman arrived home at 1:15 a.m. and immediately felt a gun to her head when she unlocked her front door. She was pushed into her home and raped, with $120 stolen from her purse.
She survived her ordeal and called the police, who took her to the hospital in Ada, Oklahoma, where a rape kit was collected. The victim, a white woman, described her attacker as a black man with a partial gold front tooth. She said he was wearing a cap and jacket, so she couldn’t give a body type, but placed his height somewhere between 5’7” and 6’2”.
When Crime Stoppers filmed a reenactment of the crime near the victim’s home, two police detectives noticed a black man parked on the street and approached the man, later identified as Lott. They noticed he had a gold tooth and asked him where he was during the crime. Lott explained that he was with his fiancée that night, which she confirmed. She also told police that Lott didn’t have a phone at his home and didn’t make any calls on the day of the crime.
Lott agreed to go down to the Ada police station and participate in a lineup and speak with officers. So how did he end up being the suspect local authorities pursued? This part of the story gets really ridiculous and seems like something ripped out of a really bad 1970s police procedural show.
Each of the individuals who participated in the lineup were given gold foil to simulate a gold tooth and because of that, most of them could not fully open their mouths. Unfortunately for Lott, he could, and was labeled the attacker. Yes, this man ultimately spent 30 years in prison due to being able to fully open his mouth with a fake foil tooth.
Despite the tooth incident, it still took the victim more than half an hour to confirm Lott was the one who attacked her. He was promptly arrested, convicted, and given a prison sentence of a century.
Fast forward to 2014.
The victim in the case revealed to an investigator that at the time, she was really worried about picking the wrong person in the lineup, admitting there was nothing special that stood out about Lott that made her ultimately pick him as her assailant.
“The only evidence against Lott was the victim’s identification, even though she had described her attacker as being clean shaven when Lott had a mustache. DNA testing on evidence from the scene conducted in 2014 excluded Lott as the source of the male genetic material found on the victim’s rape kit. Even with this evidence, former District Attorney Paul Smith refused to vacate Lott’s conviction,” Ashe Schow wrote for the Daily Wire.
In 2018, the DNA evidence was to be presented at a hearing, but two days before, Smith offered Lott a sentence modification that would allow him to leave prison immediately. Lott accepted and was able to return to his family, but the conviction remained on his record.
In 2023, the Innocence Project reached out to newly elected DA Erik Johnson to ask about vacating Lott’s conviction. Johnson’s office conducted a thorough review of the case and granted the exoneration on Tuesday.
“I have never lost hope that this day would come,” Lott went on to say after finally being exonerated for the crime. “I had faith that the truth would prevail — even after 35 long years. I am grateful to everyone who supported me and helped in my fight for freedom. I can finally shut this door and move on with my life.”
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Even though we’ve made major advancements in criminal justice investigation and technology for evidence analysis, there are still folks who end up in jail for crimes they did not commit. Let’s hope Lott’s case inspires investigators to be more cautious and diligent in their pursuit of justice for victims of violent crimes.
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