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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

Another One

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dec 15 2009, 2:00 PM ET Comment

Man, oh man:

A man who has spent more than 25 years in prison for the rape and murder of a Georgetown law student might walk out of prison on Tuesday after DNA evidence implicated another man.

Donald Gates was convicted of the savage 1981 attack on 21-year-old Catherine Schilling as she walked home from work through Rock Creek Park. He has always maintained his innocence.

Two separate DNA tests have vindicated him and prosecutors are preparing to have him released during a hearing in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday, a top law enforcement source told The Examiner.

And the evidence:

A special FBI agent, Michael Malone, told jurors that two pubic hairs found on Schilling's body were "microscopically identical" to a sample taken from Gates. Prosecutors also presented testimony from a convicted felon who claimed Gates' confessed the crime to him shortly after it occurred. Finally, another woman testified that Gates had also tried to rob her in the park 19 days before the murder.

Not sure if he actually robbed the woman, or not. But you read the part about pubic hair, and it sounds almost like witchcraft.


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