The Nation : Petitions Bolster Dotson

Gary Dotson is “still pretty blue” after being returned to prison in Illinois for a rape that his accuser now says did not occur, but his lawyer said his spirits were bolstered by the support of those who signed petitions calling for his release. Dotson, 28, was ordered to resume serving a 25- to 50-year sentence when a judge rejected a claim by Cathleen Crowell Webb that she had made up the rape story in 1979. Dotson’s aunt, Barbara Harenberg, said she plans to send petitions, bearing at least 5,000 signatures, to Gov. James R. Thompson and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.