PHILADELPHIA - A man convicted in a 2014 home-invasion murder is now suing Chester County after the Third Circuit found evidence lacking.
Chester County and Detective Harold Dutter are facing a lawsuit filed by Marquis Lee Rayner, who says he was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 10 years. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Dec. 29. Rayner is represented by attorneys Joel J. Feller and Kevin Harden Jr., from Ross Feller Casey, LLP.
Rayner was incarcerated for a crime he did not commit and was released on February 1, 2023, after the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that his constitutional right to due process had been violated, the suit says. The court found that no rational trier of fact could have found Rayner guilty as a verdict of guilt cannot rest upon pure speculation.
"Specifically, the T-shirt that connected Mr. Williams to the incident contained the DNA of 3 different people, but the only identifiable sample of the 3 belonged to Mr. Rayner," the suit says.
"The other two DNA samples were not reliable enough to identify anyone but they (1) did not belong to Mr. Rayner and (2) could not exclude others. The Third Circuit held that, even when viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the prosecution, there was no evidence or method for any factfinder to determine when Mr. Rayner’s DNA was deposited on the T-shirt."
The lawsuit alleges that Chester County and Detective Dutter were responsible for Rayner's wrongful conviction. It further claims that Dutter acted in concert with other employees of Chester County to deprive Rayner of his constitutionally protected rights.
Rayner is seeking a trial by jury and is claiming damages exceeding $75,000.