Albert and Dave Johnson

Albert Johnson was convicted of two separate sexual assaults in 1992 and 1993 in Contra Costa County. One assault occurred in San Pablo; the other in Richmond. He was sentenced to fifteen years on the San Pablo conviction and twenty-four years on the Richmond conviction, to be served consecutively. In fall 2001, Albert filed a motion for DNA testing in each of the cases. These motions were granted, and on October 3, 2002, he was exonerated on the Richmond rape following DNA testing, which demonstrated that he could not have been the perpetrator. Since that time, the DNA extracted from the biological materials in that case has been compared with the profiles of convicted felons in the California database, and the actual perpetrator has been identified.

Following his exoneration on the Richmond assault, Albert was released from prison on the belief that he had served all of his time on the San Pablo rape and was overdue for parole. He was reincarcerated four days later, however, when it was discovered that he still had ten months to serve on that sentence. The California Department of Corrections argued that he had lost over 360 days of "good-time" prison credits for possessing an inmate-manufactured weapon in his cell, and they maintained that he was not due for parole until August 2003.

At Albert's urging, the Northern California Innocence Project investigated the knife violation and found that the knife had been planted in his cell by a group of white supremacists, who were trying to force all African Americans from their cell block. After filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging the credit loss, the Office of the Attorney General investigated the matter and agreed to restore his credits.

In the meantime, Albert is continuing to challenge the San Pablo conviction. Unfortunately, it appears that all DNA evidence from the case has been destroyed. The investigation is ongoing.