DNA testing earned Tacoma man new trial in 1989 murder. But he pleaded guilty

DNA testing earned Tacoma man new trial in 1989 murder. But he pleaded guilty

A man’s new trial in a 1989 Tacoma murder was cut short Thursday through a guilty plea. A judge had allowed James Ronald Howland to again appear in front of a jury after an attorney for the Washington Innocence Project argued that newly-discovered DNA evidence supported his innocence.A Pierce County judge vacated Howland’s conviction for aggravated first-degree murder in 2024. An attorney for Howland, 69, had contended that testing of bloodied i…

Tacoma Man Howland Pleads Guilty After DNA Vacated Conviction

James Howland, whose 1990 murder conviction was vacated by DNA testing, pleaded guilty in Tacoma and will be released after 37 years.