Man cleared of rape by DNA to prison for drugs


January 2, 2014 at 8:48p.m.

Man cleared of rape by DNA to prison for drugs

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 today 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 1/2 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.