MISSOULA — In the first and last test of a Montana law providing compensation to those wrongly convicted of a crime, a Missoula jury Tuesday rejected an attempt by Cody Marble to claim a $750,000 judgment — despite his exoneration seven years ago on a rape conviction.
The state district court jury, after five-plus hours of deliberation following a seven-day trial, said Marble did not prove his innocence in the 22-year-old rape case, and therefore isn’t entitled to the money reports the Montana Free Press.
Marble was convicted in late 2002 of raping a fellow inmate in the Missoula County Juvenile Detention Center earlier that year.
Yet Marble, now 39, has always asserted his innocence, saying the crime never occurred. After a years-long court battle, he was exonerated of the charge in 2017 after the Montana Supreme Court said prosecutors should re-examine evidence in the case.
At the time, Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst said her review of the case convinced her Marble was falsely convicted and that he could not be convicted if retried. She filed to dismiss the charge in 2016 and a judge agreed a year later, allowing Marble to be freed from prison.
But when Marble filed a claim in 2021 under a new state law to be compensated for his wrongful conviction, Missoula County and the state aggressively fought his claim, arguing that the exoneration did not mean he was innocent.
The law — which is no longer on the books — required claimants to prove their innocence to receive compensation.
During closing arguments Tuesday, Andrew Huppert, an attorney representing Missoula County, said the case for Marble’s innocence was built on a “house of lies” by Marble and the Montana Innocence Project, which assisted with Marble’s attempt to overturn his conviction.
Huppert ridiculed Marble’s assertion that the alleged victim — Robert Thomas, age 13 in 2002 — and several other detention center inmates had conspired to concoct the story that Marble raped Thomas in March 2002.
Thomas and the other inmates testified against Marble at his 2002 trial, saying Marble raped Thomas in the shower of the prison cell “pod” where they were housed.
“I just never figured out the logic of that conspiracy,” Huppert said sarcastically.
Marble’s lead attorney, Mark Kovacich of Great Falls, asked the jury Tuesday who was more likely to lie: A group of troubled kids in juvenile lockup, or the lineup of adult professionals, including detention center guards on staff when the alleged incident occurred and Innocence Project officials, who said during trial they’re convinced the crime never occurred.
Kovacich also said the county and state never answered a central question: Why would Marble commit such a crime, in full view of other inmates…
