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Richard L. Samuels (born August 13, 1926 - died April 14, 2001 in Flossmoor) was a Cook County Circuit judge at the Sixth Municipal District Courthouse in Markham, Illinois for nearly 30 years. His most (in)famous Case was the high profiled rape case against Gary Dotson during the 1970s and 1980s. Dotson is the first American man who wasto be exonerated of a criminal conviction by DNA evidence.
Samuels ordered Dotson back to prison, after the victim, Cathleen Mae Webb, of the alleged 1977 rape, recanted. Later Samuels upheld Dotson's conviction, because "he believed the victim's original testimony."
Richard L. Samuels retired in December 2000. Due to cancer, he died 4 months later, at the Age of 74, on April 14, 2001, inthe Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest. He is buried at the Ridgewood Cemetery in Des Plaines.