#312 - In 1991, John Kunco was convicted in Pennsylvania of raping and torturing a 55-year-old woman inside her apartment. There was no DNA evidence tying him to the crime. Instead, the case against him relied heavily on an alleged bite mark and a delayed voice identification.

Kunco spent nearly 28 years in prison before advances in forensic science began to unravel the evidence used to convict him. DNA testing excluded him from key physical evidence, and the forensic dentists who testified at his trial later withdrew their conclusions, acknowledging that bite mark analysis is not a reliable forensic method.

In 2018, Kunco’s conviction was vacated — but the case did not end there. Subsequent legal developments, including guilty pleas to reduced charges, complicated public understanding of whether Kunco was wrongfully convicted, raising difficult questions about how forensic failure, legal strategy, and justice intersect.

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