United States v. Bill Watson

We address whether new DNA tests that make previously useless DNA capable of identification amount to “newly discovered DNA evidence” under the Innocence Protection Act.

Facts

Bill Watson was indicted for knowingly attempting to engage in a sexual act with a person physically unable to communicate unwillingness, as well as for assault of the victim’s brother with a dangerous weapon. The case came to federal court because the indictment charged that Watson, “an Indian person,” committed the crimes “within the boundaries of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, being Indian Country.” He was convicted of the sex crime but not the assault, and sentenced to 178 months of imprisonment to be followed by five years of supervised release.

The alleged sex crime and assault occurred at a party at children and their friends had obtained two bottles of rum. J.M.B., then 14 years old, got so drunk that a friend and her brother were concerned about her choking on her vomit while she slept, and gagged her to make her throw up. After she vomited, they put her to bed in the master bedroom, her mother’s room. Watson went to that bedroom.

From there, the accounts diverged. J.M.B. was…