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A Missouri farmer who spent nearly two decades in mental hospitals after entering a disputed plea in the 1997 sexual assault of a teenager has been cleared of the crime after genetic evidence was re-tested and excluded him as a suspect.

The top prosecutor in southwestern Missouri's Jasper County dropped the case against 58-year-old Mike Wilkerson last Friday, citing the recent DNA testing conducted on a cigarette butt and a condom found at the scene.

Its about darn time, Clint Wilkerson, who was 9 years old when his father was arrested, told The Joplin Globe.

The Globe reported that Wilkerson had to watch from the hospital as his family struggled to keep his586-acre cattle ranch.

The victim, who was 17 at the time, said she was sexually assaulted by a gunman who entered her home after pretending to be lost, and she identified Wilkerson as her attacker from a photo lineup.

Wilkerson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in 2000, and by Missouri law, he was ordered committed indefinitely to mental hospitals.

In such cases, defendants remain in the state Department of Mental Health's custody until they prove they no longer have a mental illness that could endanger themselves or others. Because Wilkerson's case involved a violent sex act, he faced the added burden of showing he understood the criminality of it essentially admitting it.

But Wilkerson has been unwavering in professing his innocence, his appeals attorney, Bill Fleischaker, said Wednesday.

"He stuck to his guns, and you've got to admire his courage," Fleischaker told The Associated Press. "There was an easy out, and he wasn't willing to take it."

A judge last year threw out that Wilkerson's plea, leading to Wilkerson being freed on bond in January pending a new trial and to prosecutors taking a fresh look at the evidence.

"I am dumbfounded they were able to get the DNA and accept that I was never at the crime scene," Wilkerson told the AP by phone, adding that his bipolar condition was stabilized with medication in 2003 and that he had been "just doing time" since then. "I was beginning to think I would never get out," he said.

Wilkerson lamented that he wasn't able to walk his daughter down the aisle and that he missed his son's wedding. Asked whether he might sue, though, he said he and his lawyers didn't know what they'd do.

Jasper County Prosecutor Theresa Kenney said prosecutors who initially handled the case failed to consider all of the evidence. At that time, only the condom found at the scene was tested for DNA, but that examination proved inconclusive with the technology available then.

Fleischaker said at the time Wilkerson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at his trial attorney's urging, he was financially troubled, bipolar and "very mentally ill."

"Mike didn't understand when he entered the not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and the fact he had no other defense that that's the legal equivalent of saying you did it," Fleischaker said. "It's the legal equivalent of saying, 'I'm guilty but insane,' and that's the way it was treated.

"There were a lot of things done wrong that led to Mike being in the situation he was in."

Fleischaker said a DNA test he ordered on the cigarette butt in 2011 excluded Wilkerson as the source of the genetic material on it. He said Wilkerson's legal team didn't have access at the time to swabs of DNA taken from the condom.

Last year, a judge threw out Wilkerson's plea because state psychiatrists never concluded he was insane at the time of the crime. Wilkerson later pleaded not guilty, prompting prosecutors to resubmit the evidence for DNA testing, which ultimately cleared him.

"It's been a long road," Fleischaker said. "The key to this thing is we felt all along the DNA would exonerate him. The problem is there were a lot of procedural hurdles we had to get over."

Wilkerson is reportedly making plans for a steak dinner with his family.

I lost 20 years. I lost time with my kids. Thats what I regret, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Missouri farmer cleared in 1997 sex case by DNA evidence - Fox News

We are a society obsessed with information. Were constantly connected, click-click-clicking to access a steady stream of news, data, and social-media updates. Curiosity is a powerful motivator, but theres one area in which our thirst for knowledge has been inconsistent: genetic testing.

DNA tests have become du jour in the past decade. Technological advances and access to genomic testing translates into the ability to see whats beneath the hood of our chromosomal cars. Weve become obsessed with ancestry tests like 23andMe and finding out our babies sexes before theyre born, but we often shy away when it comes to more serious curiosities. Even though you can now easily find out if you carry the genetic mutations or changes for recessive diseases like spinal muscular atrophy, we often dont test for these genetic glitches because we just dont want to know. But its important that we find out.

Theres no doubt that genetics is complicated, and maybe its that lack of certainty that deters some people from diving into their DNA. Genetic disease can be confusing, with some mutations definitely resulting in disease and others leading only to increased risk. Some genetic diseases require that both parents have a mutation in order to stand a chance of having an affected child; others can be triggered by just one parent possessing a mutation. Its a bit of a crapshoot.

With so many diseases and conditions transmitted in different ways and identifiable at different stages of pregnancy, its no wonder that some women choose to forego prenatal testing at all; adopting a head-in-the-sand approach can be easier to cope with than grappling with the uncertainties raised by a DNA test.

But when it comes to prenatal testing, information is always a good thing. Knowing ahead of time about a condition can allow parents to set up a support network of family and friends and connect with other parents who have a child with a similar diagnosis. They can learn more about the condition with which their fetus has been diagnosed, seek out medical specialists ahead of time, and choose to deliver at a hospital that has the appropriate level of care for a baby with special needs.

Being surprised by an unexpected diagnosis on the day of delivery turns what should have been a joyous day into a day marked by confusion and fear.I interviewed scores of mothers for my book, The Gene Machine: How Genetic Technologies Are Changing the Way We Have KidsAnd the Kids We Have. In speaking with numerous women who didnt know while pregnant that they would give birth to children with special needs, Ive heard a common theme. Moms say that being surprised by an unexpected diagnosis on the day of delivery turned what should have been a joyous daythe birth of their childinto a day marked by confusion and fear. They wish they would have been aware of their childs diagnosis so that they could have come to terms with it before giving birth. That awareness could have allowed them to educate themselves and to prepare mentally and emotionally. It could have given them a jumpstart on processing and resolving the inevitable feelings of loss that come with learning that the baby youd hoped for is not the baby you have.

Pregnancy is not a perfect science; things can and do go awry. Worldwide, an astounding 8 million babies6% of birthsare born with a birth defect, many of which can be traced to genetics.

But even when the baby you give birth to may not be the perfect baby you expected, arming yourself with information ahead of time can make a big difference in how you process the experience of having a child with special needs. In 1987, Sesame Street writer Emily Perl Kingsley wrote about reconciling reality with expectations after the birth of her son, Jason, who was born in 1974 with Down syndrome.

When youre going to have a baby, its like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, Welcome to Holland. Holland?!? you say. What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! Im supposed to be in Italy. All my life Ive dreamed of going to Italy.

Some women decline genetic testing because they say that even if they receive a concerning diagnosis, they wouldnt alter the course of their pregnancy anyway. But thats rarely the case. As one genetic counselor told me, shes never had a couple do absolutely nothing upon learning that their fetus has a health issue. When people say they wouldnt do anything differently, she said, thats simply not true. Do anything differently is often code for abortion, yet ending a pregnancy is just one option upon receiving concerning genetic-test results. Many parents decide to continue an affected pregnancy.

Other women turn down the offer of genetic testing either because theyre overwhelmed by its complexity or because they mistakenly think theyre in the clear because they have no family history of genetic conditions. But family history, while useful, is a poor predictor of potential problems.

Consider autosomal recessive diseases such as cystic fibrosis, which affects one in 2,500 white babies. (Its less common in African American and Asian populations). If both parents carry the same genetic mutation, their children have only a 25% chance of developing the disease. Compare this with autosomal dominant mutations such as BRCA, often called the breast cancer gene. If either parent has a BRCA mutation, theres a 50% chance of passing that same genetic change to a child. Then there are conditions such as Down syndrome, which arent typically inherited and instead occur randomly around the time of conception.

Just because no one in your family suffers from a recessive disease doesnt mean youre not a carrier of it. Think back to those autosomal recessive diseases such as cystic fibrosis that occur only if both parents carry a mutation. Each pregnancy conceived by these carrier couples only has a 25% chance of developing the diseasethat means theres a 75% chance that any child will be disease-free. A mutation for one of these diseases could be unknowingly passed down for generations before two partners with the same mutation find one another and make a baby that has the unfortunate luck to inherit both problematic mutations.

We are no longer living in an era in which women have no choice but to remain in the dark about the health of their unborn children. All parents stand to benefit from knowing about potential problems ahead of time, which allows them to be proactive and take charge. Genetic testing before and during pregnancy can empower parents to make the decisions that are right for them, whether the itinerary of parenting leads them to Italy, Holland, or somewhere in between.

Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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The real reason why all women should get their DNA tested - Quartz

E

ven if you didnt take art history classes in school, you probably know Salvador Dals work. One of the surrealists most famous paintings, The Persistence of Memory, is the one with the melting clocks.

But memory is not the only thing that persists a woman who has claimed to be Dals daughter for over a decade has not given up. To support her contention, Pilar Abel has had two previous paternity tests performed one with inconclusive results, another that allegedly never sent her results. Now a Spanish court has granted her request to have Dals body exhumed from a crypt in Catalonia so a third test can be conducted.

But Dal has been dead for nearly 30 years. Can a sample of his DNA still give Abel a definitive answer?

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Yes and no, saidHendrik Poinar, principal investigator at the McMaster Ancient DNA Center in Ontario, Canada. The success of the test will depend on a lot of factors including, possibly, which kind of analysis is done.

Poinar isnt involved in the case, but he is trying to solve a mystery about another famous 20th-century artist. Hes analyzing the remains of poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda to determine if a bacteria was involved in his death in 1973.

Genetic fossil-hunters dig through HIVs long history for clues to new treatments

The researchers working with Dals DNA will need to consider two main issues: contamination during the exhumation and working with degraded DNA afterward, Poinar said.

Though Dal died in 1989 certainly not ancient history your DNA degrades the minute you die, Poinar said. He and his students will often define ancient DNA as anything thats buried in the ground.

A sample will likely come from one of three places: hair, a molar tooth, or a small but very compact bone in the skull near the inner ear. Hair is pretty resistant to contamination, Poinar said, and the bone called thepetrous bone has the most DNA per gram of any part of the skeleton.

A standard forensics lab might take these samples, extract DNA, and look at a set of more than a dozen microsatellites, Poinar said. Each microsatellite can range from 100 to 400 DNA base pairs long and can vary in only so many ways in which DNA bases repeat and how many times they repeat. (These repeating sequences are called short tandem repeats, or STRs; looking for them is called STR analysis.)

For comparison, the human genome is about 3 billion base pairs long.The possible patterns are numerous enough that determining if two samples come from the same person or if the donor of one sample is likely related to the other is very possible.

However, Dals DNA may be in shorter fragments which may mean this DNA profiling technique will be less reliable. In Poinars experience, the average length of a DNA fragment from skeletal remains is about 70 to 80 base pairs so the average fragment would likely have only part of a satellite region. If many of these microsatellites are compromised, then the analysis loses a lot of statistical power.

Instead, he and other ancient DNA experts working in more specialized labs prefer sequencing full genomes and comparing a collection of single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced snips), which are variations in just one base pair.

The burial environment what kind of casket Dal was buried in could have an effect, for example, or any kind of treatment his body received before burial can have a impact on the condition of DNA. Only the people on the ground during the exhumation and those who actually sequence the sample will know what state the DNA is in, noted Reena Roy, an associate professor in the forensic science program at Pennsylvania State University. Without being there or using other techniques to determine how degraded the DNA actually is, she said, one can only speculate.

Roy suspects Dals DNA could be in decent shape its only 30 years old, she said. Shed still use STR analysis first, but if that didnt seem to work, shed consider using miniSTR testing, which uses the same principles but focuses on smaller DNA segments.

Bottom line: Though the circumstances around the particular paternity case may be a bit surreal, the techniques themselves are not; STR analysis is usually done in paternity cases, Roy said.

This is so routine these days.

Kate Sheridan can be reached at kate.sheridan@statnews.com Follow Kate on Twitter @sheridan_kate

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Dal's being dug up for a paternity test. But is his DNA intact? - STAT