THE TRUE STORY OF CLARENCE MOSES_EL’S CASE: THE MAN RUMORED TO HAVE BEEN JAILED FOR RAPING A WOMAN IN HER DREAMS

Trigger Warning: Rape. Assault. Abuse.

Sometime in 2019, a story circulated all over the internet that a man was jailed because a woman dreamed he raped her. This sparked a digital outrage as it should. However, the story is false. Here’s the real story:

In 1987, a woman went out drinking with 3 men. After the night was done, they said their farewells and went their separate ways. The lady got home drunk and something terrible happened to her.

She was raped and beaten so badly that she lost sight in one of her eyes.

She reported to the police right away and they commenced investigation immediately.

First, she said that it was too dark to recognize the culprit. Then, she suggested that it must have been one of the men she had gone out drinking with.

While the police were still trying to piece the puzzle out, she rushed in like a storm with an outrageous claim. She knew her abuser.

Who could commit such a brutal crime? Clarence Moses-El, she named.

Clarence was her neighbor. And so he was taken into custody for questioning. Except... It was 1987 and he was a black man.

According to claims, his case passed through a hasty trial and he was convicted of the crime. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison and his countdown started immediately.

I would have joyfully said that justice prevailed but this had sparked a racial outrage due to one crazy detail…

The woman had said that she recognized him as the perpetrator from a dream she had after the incident. And on that single note, the legal system saw it fit to jail a man.

Although he maintained his innocence, his words didn't hold water. He fought and cried but he still went to jail over a ridiculous claim.

More details to this case will make you shudder:

• In the absence of any witness and in the presence of an outlandish "evidence," Clarence's attorney insisted on getting a rape kit to help with the case.
• They subtly denied him this until sometime in the 90's (by then he was serving time in prison).
• The results of the rape kit was said to be thrown into the trash despite the obvious "Do Not Destroy" sign on it. Hence, was never admitted in court.
• The money for the DNA test ($1,000) was raised by Clarence from other inmates yet they destroyed the kit.
• He had an alibi who testified that he was home at the time of the assault.
• The lab analyst who tested the blood type sample on the rape kit said she could not exclude Clarence or any other male as the source of the semen. But the kit was gone!

Get ready for the icing on the cake!

• According to his attorney, the blood samples found at the scene didn't match Clarence's.
• Then, in 2013, a man named Jackson confessed that he was the one who broke into the apartment of the victim, brutally beat her up and violently raped her anally and vaginally.
• Clarence tried but they refused to reopen the case despite Jackson's confession.
• Sadly, in 2015, Jackson retracted his words. And it was allowed.

They had tried to kill Clarence’s spirits and had successfully frustrated his efforts. And in what would be Clarence’s remaining gloomy days, dawn cracked in.

In 2015, his case was reopened.

This time they reviewed evidence present, acquired more and critically looked into details through some big lens.

That in place and under fair judgement, the bars of Clarence's cells were thrown open.

After 28 years in prison, Clarence, at 60, became a free man.

Even though that much time was stolen from him, he expressed joy reuniting with his family and friends again. His grandchildren whom he missed out on were there to welcome him.

In November 2016, a jury found Moses-El not guilty of all charges. Later, in December 2017, Moses-El asked for money from the city of Denver, Denver police officers, and a former District Attorney named Mitch Morrissey in a federal civil rights lawsuit. However, this lawsuit was dismissed in 2019.

Moses-El also asked the state for money. In 2019, the new Colorado Attorney General said the state would not fight against giving Moses-El $2 million in compensation. He called the case a "travesty of justice." In the end, Moses-El received $2,304,979 from the state.

“It’s better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer” - The blackstone’s ratio.

The blackstone ratio is a principle in criminal justice, propounded by Jurist William Blackstone.

Do you think that the legal system is built on the Blackstone ratio?

When you scan through the story you might be tempted to say that the system failed Clarence.

However, the details of this case showed it was a weapon fashioned against him.