Man convicted of rape, impregnating a preteen wants DNA testing to prove his innocence
A 72-year-old serving a life sentence for raping and impregnating an 11-year-old in 2001 now wants DNA testing to prove his innocence.
“Paternity test will prove it wasn’t me that had sex with her,” Herman Geathers said in an Horry County court on Friday.
Geathers was convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and sentenced to life in prison. On Friday, he was in court as he represented himself in a request for DNA testing.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles while holding a stack of papers, Geathers said the DNA tests would show that he “never had sex with the kid.” Investigators say that Geathers raped an 11-year-old girl and she later gave birth.
Blood was taken from Geathers at the time of his case, Horry County police Lt. Peter Cestare testified. It was then sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement lab for testing. But, procedures at the time meant they would use the full sample for testing and destroy anything left over.
That policy was before changes in state practices that required saving part of a forensic sample for possible future testing, Cestare said.
The county no longer has forensic samples from the victim nor her child.
Judge Craig Brown told Geathers he would have to review case law before he made a decision. He expressed concern with people convicted of crimes making requests 20 years later to have DNA tested without further accusations or changes in the case.
Geathers is being held in Perry Correctional Institution in Greenville County. He was also convicted of rape and kidnapping in Berkeley County in the mid-1970s, according to jail records.
