DNA tests prompt rape conviction review

? Authorities are reviewing the conviction of a man imprisoned for a 1992 rape after he was cleared by DNA tests that the original lab analyst refused to conduct.

Marlon Pendleton’s lawyers received the results of the new tests Wednesday and filed a motion seeking to vacate his conviction. Prosecutors were reviewing the case and Pendleton’s conviction in another rape, said John Gorman, spokesman for State’s Attorney Richard Devine.

A hearing was set for Thursday.

Pendleton demanded DNA testing after his arrest, but police lab analyst Pamela Fish said there wasn’t enough genetic material to test the evidence. Pendleton was convicted based on the victim’s identification.

The expert who conducted the new tests, Brian Wraxall of Serological Research Institute, said he was surprised at Fish’s report “because I found a reasonable amount of DNA.”

Fish’s work has been challenged in the past, most notably in the cases of four men later cleared by DNA evidence of the 1986 rape and murder of medical student Lori Roscetti.