Larry Sims, freed by DNA, deserves to have name cleared even in death

By Bob Ray Sanders

bobray@star-telegram.com

Larry Sims died this month at age 62.

He died free, but not "innocent" -- the one thing he wanted most.

His is not only a case of justice delayed, but justice denied... unto death. Now the state of Texas, and the Dallas district attorney's office, owe Sims a full clearing of his name, even though he won't see it.

Sims was convicted in 1986 of raping a female acquaintance and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He served more than 24 years before DNA evidence showed his accuser had sex with another man the night she claimed she was raped.

The victim, in naming Sims as her attacker, denied she had sex with anyone else, although Sims' cousin testified that he and the woman had consensual sex the evening of the alleged rape, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The cousin also said the woman, who smoked crack cocaine with him on the night of the "crime," offered to drop the rape charge against Sims if the cousin gave her drugs.

No physical evidence was ever entered in the trial because then-Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade had told the defense attorney there was no evidence that could be tested.

In fact, there was a sanitary napkin from the woman in the county's crime lab that provided the DNA used 25 years later.

Sims, who waited until he was on parole in 2009 before seeking help toward exoneration, didn't trust the system, said Cory Session, policy director for the Innocence Project of Texas.

He said Sims had testified in the landmark Ruiz v. Estelle case against the state prison system -- a lawsuit that drastically changed Texas prisons -- and, after being threatened, was sent by federal Judge William Wayne Justice to a federal prison in Minnesota for about 18 months for his own protection.

While on parole in a halfway house, Sims contacted Dallas County Public Defender Michelle Moore to say he was wrongly convicted, and he requested a DNA test from the court.

Sims, who was sent back to prison after a few months for reportedly violating curfew rules, would live long enough to hear a Texas judge apologize to him.

With five months left on his sentence in January 2011, state District Judge Gracie Lewis prepared to set him free.

Lewis told him, according to the Morning News, "I would like to apologize for the failures of the Texas justice system. Thank you for persevering and making sure ... this wrong was righted."

Now another wrong needs to be righted.

Even though Lewis said Sims probably would not have been convicted with the DNA evidence, Lewis has not been declared innocent -- never fully exonerated, something his friends say "worried him to death."

The Dallas DA's office at the time said it needed to do more investigating before supporting a motion to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for exoneration.

When asked for an explanation this week, DA's office spokesperson Jamille Bradfield issued this statement:

"After Mr. Sims' conviction was vacated in October of 2011, the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) dismissed the case against him. The CIU continued its investigation of his claim of actual innocence in conjunction with his counsel. We send our condolences to his family."

That's nice, but not good enough.

Public defender Moore has said there's doubt whether a crime occurred at all, and based on the evidence -- indicating the victim lied on the witness stand -- Sims should be exonerated.

When he was finally released, the first thing he wanted to do was visit the grave of his mother, who died in 1989 while he was in prison.

An only child, Sims was accompanied to the gravesite by a group of "brothers," other exonerated men who have formed a very close fraternity.

His funeral is set for 3 p.m. Friday at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. His aunt Dearline Sims said he will be buried near his mother.

Bob Ray Sanders' column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. 817-390-7775

Twitter: @BobRaySanders

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