Updated at 5:30 p.m. with additional comments from former inmates.
Through his arrest, conviction and years of fruitless appeals from prison, John Grega insisted that he was innocent. Someone else, Grega insisted, had raped and murdered his wife while the couple vacationed in West Dover in 1994.
In 2012, after 18 years behind bars, Grega walked out of prison a free man, the first and only Vermont inmate to be exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence.
“I always said I would walk out,” Grega said after he left Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield to cheers from his fellow inmates, according to the Bennington Banner. “I never gave up. I feel good.”
His freedom was short-lived. Grega 52, died on Friday night, after his van smashed into a telephone pole in his hometown of Lake Ronkonkoma on New York’s Long Island.
“It’s just so sad and tragic,” said Gordon Bock, who served time in a Swanton prison with Grega and kept in touch after they were released. “He went through this horrible, 18-year experience, came out the other end and only a few years later … I’m having a hard time with this.”
Christine Grega was found dead on the evening of September 12, 1994, strangled, raped and beaten. When interviewed by police, Grega, who had no criminal record, initially said her injuries were accidental, and later blamed two painters working in the condo complex for her death. Later, at his trial, he said he was at the park with his son when the murder occurred.
Though there were no witnesses or physical evidence, a jury convicted Grega of murder and sexual assault in 1995. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Grega worked on his case from prison. But it wasn’t until 2008, when Vermont passed a law allowing convicted felons to request DNA testing not previously available, that his appeals gained momentum. The Vermont Defender General’s Office and the New England Innocence Project got involved.
In May 2012, the Vermont Forensic Laboratory concluded that Grega was “excluded as the source of the major contributor of DNA in the most relevant sample.”
He moved back to New York, and tried to enjoy life’s daily pleasures.
“I jumped in the pool around 6 a.m.,” Grega told the New York Post about his first free morning. “I lit up a cigar and watched the sun come up. It’s just the simple things. I had a cup of coffee with my mom in the kitchen.”
In July 2014, Grega filed a lawsuit against former Windham County state’s attorney Dan Davis, the town of Dover and three members of the Vermont State Police who were involved in the investigation. A hearing in federal court was scheduled for next week. (Generally, lawsuits are allowed to proceed if the plaintiff dies. Grega’s estate would be the primary beneficiary. Calls to his attorney were not immediately returned.)
Bock had planned to attend the upcoming hearing in Grega’s lawsuit, to support his friend and catch up. They first met in the law library in the Swanton prison, which Grega helped run for years. Bock went there to research his own appeal, and Grega was always eager to help.
“He helped countless men over the years feel some sense of empowerment in dealing with the outrages of the legal system,” Bock said. “It was miraculous that [for] someone who knows he is wrongfully in for 18 years … he maintained a really positive attitude. He embodied what Gandhi said about sometimes the best way to help yourself is to help others.”
Among those Grega helped was Jason Mode, another Swanton inmate. Mode compared Grega to Andy Dufresne, the protagonist of The Shawshank Redemption.
“That’s John Grega. That’s the type of person he was,” Mode said. “He worked in the law library, he came and went as he pleased, he was one of those guys that nobody bothered, nobody messed with him. He was always willing to help everybody and anybody.”
Grega helped Mode draft legal appeals that Mode said got him out of prison five years early.
They kept in touch after they were released, mostly through Facebook, which was where Mode learned of his death.
“It’s horrible,” Mode said. “It’s so ironic. The whole thing, it’s ridiculous. It’s made for TV, a Lifetime movie.”
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Again, I take issue with your sloppy reporting. The writer implies Grega changed his story regarding his whereabouts. “Later, at his trial, he said he was at the park with his son when the murder occurred.” That’s what he said when the police first interviewed him. Grega didn’t reveal that “later” although he would, of course, *also* state it at trial. Fortunately, the story indicates that this defendant was exonerated by DNA evidence so the misleading 7 Days-style reporting is offset by actual facts. How do I know this? I read the court documents, which perhaps the reporter should have done. Are there any editors there?
Grega was never “exonerated” nor was his guilt disproved – he was freed b/c the DNA of another was found in her body. A new trial was ordered however the guest list was destroyed in Irene hurricane and prosecution couldn’t come up with the additional evidence in the time frame given by the judge. She was sodomized & suffered severe internal injuries. Whatever she was sodomized with could have been touched by anyone – even a beer bottle or picked up DNA from where they were staying depending on where it was located.
The state could have repoened the case at any time new evidence was discovered however after all of the years the wherabouts of those whose DNA is relevant are unknown. The “painters” were exonerated, as were any other supects.
“Tracy Kelly Shriver, the Windham County state’s attorney, filed a response saying that despite the new DNA analysis, there was “overwhelming circumstantial evidence” linking Grega to the crime. She cited his changing stories to investigators and the fact that the condominium had been cleaned before police were called”
http://truthinjustice.org/john-grega.htm
More;
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130…
He did it:
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/vt-supreme-cour…
I believe Mr Grega a consummate liar, egotistical sociopath who arrogantly claimed her internal injuries were due to “rough sex” & that his penis is so large that even prostitutes refused him. Uh huh!
Anyone who has lived an abusive lifestyle would note his oddly jocular assertions, recognize that there was no one that wanted her dead but her alcoholic husband who actually bought beer while claiming they were on a trip to salvage their marriage while seeing through the sheerness of his lies with ease.
We’ve seen this movie before & survived only b/c we escaped the oh-so familiar chase scene.