Could wrong woman be in prison, real criminal still on the loose?

Idaho’s capital city’s been rocked recently by horrifying crime news, from the first-degree murder arrests of the mother and mother’s boyfriend in the case of an 8-year-old boy, Robert Manwill, whose disappearance prompted an intensive community search, to the double life sentences handed down to John Delling, the mentally ill young man who went on a road-trip rampage aimed at tracking down and murdering his childhood friends. Less noticed has been something going on behind the scenes: A possible new twist in another terrible crime.

The Idaho Innocence Project at Boise State University says it has unearthed evidence showing that Sarah Pearce, a woman who was convicted in 2003 for the savage beating of a Washington state motorist who was passing through the area on the freeway, may actually be innocent, in a case of mistaken identity. “There are now witnesses that have come forward with a different story … that clears Sarah and clearly implicates someone else,” said Greg Hampikian, a forensic scientist, biology and criminal justice professor and director of the Idaho Innocence Project. You can read my full Sunday column on the case here.