"We're Sorry"

A case of mistaken identity

It started out like a routine call. Police in Columbus received a tip that a man was loitering outside a north-side town house. When the officers arrived, the intruder was inside with a ski mask and an array of burglary tools. Arrested was an improbable suspect: Dr. Edward Jackson, 38, a prominent local internist. The case be came even more improbable after the police searched Jackson's car. There they found a long list of rape victims, leading them to believe that Jackson was the "Grandville rapist," suspected of nearly 100 assaults in that affluent neighbor hood. Last week a Franklin County grand jury indicted Jackson on 94 counts, including 36 rapes and 46 burglaries.

But the improbabilities did not end there. It turned out that another man, William Jackson, 31, had been serving a sentence of 14 to 50 years for two of the rapes now attributed to Dr. Jackson. In an apparent case of mistaken identity, two rape victims had picked William Jackson out of a police lineup in 1977. The resemblance between the two men, who are not related, is indeed striking: both are tall, slender blacks with short Afros, sparse beards, mustaches and similar facial features.

William Jackson was released from prison 7 1/2 hours after Edward Jackson was indicted. He holds no grudge against the mistaken witnesses -- "It ain't their fault" -- but he is bitter at the system of justice that put him behind bars. Ohio law provides no compensation for persons falsely convicted unless it can be shown that due process was not observed. Says William Jackson, who was stabbed and repeatedly assaulted during his imprisonment: "They took away part of my life, part of my youth. I spent five years down there, and all they said was 'We're sorry.' "

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