n 1991, Ben Salazar’s photo was chosen out of a book of mug shots as the perpetrator of a rape following an attack in an Austin home. The victim gave a detailed description of her attacker - a Hispanic male, in his late twenties to early thirties, between five feet, five inches and five feet, seven inches tall and weighing approximately 160 to 180 pounds, and wearing a turquoise shortsleeved t-shirt and brown work boots. Because she was certain she could identify her assailant, police showed her two books with mug shots of Hispanic males and she picked Salazar as her attacker.
Salazar agreed to go to the station to have his picture taken. The victim viewed several new lineups and again identified Salazar’s new photo as her attacker. Defense attorneys would later note that Salazar was wearing a turquoise shirt in the second picture the police showed the victim, the same color shirt from her description.
Ben Salazar spent five years in prison due to a mistaken eyewitness identification.
Salazar voluntarily gave blood, saliva, and hair samples to prove his innocence, but the results of the forensic testing could not exclude him as the source of the semen found on the victim. At trial, a forensic analyst testified that the blood typing characteristics found could only come from two percent of the Hispanic population which included Salazar. Salazar was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to thirty years in prison.
Post-conviction DNA testing excluded Salazar as the source of the semen found on the victim. Two additional DNA tests were performed to finally convince prosecutors and the parole board that Salazar was indeed innocent. He was granted an official pardon by Governor George W. Bush on November 20, 1997.
Because of a mistaken eyewitness identification, Ben Salazar spent five years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
