After 38 Years in Prison for Murder, British Man Is Freed by New DNA Evidence

A British man who served 38 years in prison for murder had his conviction overturned on Tuesday after forensic evidence from the crime scene was tested and found not to match his DNA.

The man, Peter Sullivan, 68, is thought to be the victim of the country’s longest miscarriage of justice involving a living prisoner. The judgment follows the emergence of several other wrongful convictions in recent years, casting a shadow over the reputation of Britain’s criminal justice system and raising grave questions about the credibility of the appeals process.

Mr. Sullivan was imprisoned after the killing in August 1986 of Diane Sindall, 21, who suffered a frenzied sexual attack in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, as she made her way home from a pub where she also worked.

After DNA evidence was presented in the case, the Court of Appeal overturned Mr. Sullivan’s conviction.