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Albert Ian Schweitzer, who was convicted of the 1991 assault and murder of Dana Ireland, was released on Tuesday, January 24, after spending two decades behind bars. He was released after a judge vacated his conviction in Honolulu court.
Schweitzer's case was brought up for consideration two decades later after new DNA test reports showed that the blood-soaked t-shirt found near Ireland's body belonged to an unknown man and not to him, as was previously believed by the prosecutors.
Further evidence showed that Albert Ian Schweitzer's Volkswagen Beetle car did not leave the tire marks that investigators found at either location where Dana Ireland's body and her bicycle were found. This pushed attorneys and lawyers from the Hawaii Innocence Project and the New York Innocence Project to file a motion in court asking the judge to vacate his conviction on Monday.
Following the motion, Schweitzer's conviction was vacated on Tuesday. Judge Peter Kubota said that the wrongly convicted man in the r*pe and murder of a white woman in Hawaii should be "released from his shackles immediately."
In a phone interview with the Associated Press, he said:
"My feelings were all over the place. Nerves, anxiety, scared."
He called the justice system "flawed" and thought of himself as one of the many prisoners who were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. He also expressed gratitude towards the judge for doing the "honorable thing."
What was the 1991 Dana Ireland murder case which led to Albert Ian Schweitzer's arrest?
On Tuesday, January 24, Albert Ian Schweitzer was released from prison after his lawyers successfully argued that the man was not involved in the 1991 s*xual assault and murder of a white woman who was visiting Hawaii. He was freed after a Hilo judge vacated his conviction.
This, however, implies that the actual murderer of Dana Ireland is still roaming freely in society. The 23-year-old woman was brutally killed on Christmas eve 1991 while on vacation in Hawaii following a road accident and s*xual assault.
She was reportedly hit by a vehicle while riding her bike on Christmas eve in Kapoho. She was later discovered in the bushes of a fishing trail along Waa Waa Road, five miles from the accident scene, alive but barely conscious. She was nude from the waist down and died from blood loss after she was taken to Hilo Medical Center.
Due to a lot of public attention, Ireland's death put a lot of pressure on investigators to solve the murder. Albert Ian Schweitzer was one of the three wrongly convicted of the killing.
Referring to the wrongful conviction, Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, said:
"Whenever you have a white, female victim ... it gets a lot more attention than people of colour and Native Hawaiians. The parents, understandably, were becoming more and more infuriated. ... There was insurmountable pressure to solve this case. And when that happens, mistakes are made. Some intentional and some unintentional."
Neither Dana Ireland’s relatives nor the prosecutors have commented on the petition and the consequent release of Albert Ian Schweitzer.
