129,000 Lobato Supporters Press D.A. Wolfson for DNA Testing

From: CBS-Las Vegas
July 2nd 2012

(LAS VEGAS CBS KXNT) Advocates for an imprisoned 29-year-old woman they believe was wrongly convicted presented a box of petitions to the Clark County District Attorneys office on Monday, urging DNA tests on crime scene evidence.

Supporters of Kirstin Lobato posted an online petition that drew the attention of justice organizations around the world, and garnered 129,000 signatures. The petitioners want District Attorney Steve Wolfson’s office to cooperate with the Innocence Project, which has offered to pay for DNA tests on evidence found at the scene where a homeless man’s body was found sodomized, sexually mutilated, and wrapped in plastic.

Lobato has served nearly 11 years for the crime. Members of Justice4Kirstin have repeatedly asserted that the waistband of the dead man’s pants and the plastic wrapped around his body must have been touched by the real killer, and that semen inside the body would clearly point to someone other than Lobato.

They claim the evidence used at trial was full of inconsistencies, notably, that the crime was committed six week later than an incident Lobato described to police, which was interpreted as a confession, and led them to arrest her.

Wolfson’s office did not respond to a call from KXNT, but under his predecessor, the office filed a formal objection last year to a request by Lobato’s attorney for DNA tests on a list of items from the crime scene.