Pa. man cleared of rape by DNA to prison for drugs
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PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man wrongly incarcerated for 19 years before a DNA test exonerated him of a 1986 rape is headed back to prison on gun and drug charges.
Allegheny County Judge Anthony Mariani on Thursday sentenced 54-year-old Thomas Doswell, who pleaded guilty in August to possessing marijuana, crack cocaine and a gun.
Police found the gun and drugs when they stopped Doswell, who was wanted as a material witness to a murder. Doswell, of Pittsburgh, isn’t permitted to own a gun because of a 30-year-old robbery conviction.
Doswell was sentenced to 11 ½ to 23 months in the county jail.
The judge told Doswell he didn’t deserve another chance because if the wrongful prison sentence “didn’t persuade you not to commit these offenses, I don’t know what does.”
Doswell won $3.8 million from Pittsburgh in a wrongful arrest lawsuit.