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Indonesia | 14 years on death row: Timeline of Mary Jane Veloso’s ordeal and fight for justice

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MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Texas exonerates death row inmate after DNA tests

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September 18, 2008: a man on death row in Texas for 14 years for the murder of a young girl has been exonerated after DNA tests, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reported.

Michael Blair, sentenced to death for the 1993 killing of seven-year-old Ashley Estell, had his capital murder charges dismissed by the Collin County court after hair used as evidence to convict him, was shown to belong to somebody else.

"The Plano police department is now reinvestigating the 15-year-old case to find the true killer," the center said in a statement.

"The DNA evidence that cleared Blair indicates that another man, now deceased, is a plausible suspect in the girl's death."

Blair, who remains in prison for convictions in other crimes, is the fourth person to be exonerated from death row in 2008, and brings the total number of death row exonerations to 130 since 1973, according to an "innocence list" compiled by the DPIC.

Sources: DPIC, Dallasnews.com, 18/09/2008
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