AKRON -- An Akron man who served 28 years in federal prison for a rape and murder he insisted he did not commit, is on his way home after DNA tests showed he could not be the killer.
Donald Gates is on a Greyhound bus headed for Akron from Tucson, Arizona, where he had been an inmate in a federal prison.

"I'm happy that I'm a free man and that I'm headed home," Gates said as he carried a boxful of his belongings to the bus and prepared for his long awaited journey.

Gates was convicted of the 1981 rape and murder of a 21-year-old Georgetown University student. The nude body of Catherine Schilling was found in Washington DC's Rock Creek Park. She had been shot five times in the head.

"The Public defender's Service is thrilled he will be released after 28 years of an unjust conviction," said Gates' court appointed attorney Sandra Levick in Washington. "We look forward to his compete exoneration."

DNA evidence led to Gates' release. Samples taken from the victim's body were recently discovered, and when subjected to modern methods of analysis, were found not to belong to Gates.

Gates' conviction had been in part based on the testimony of an FBI lab technician who linked hairs found at the scene of the crime to Gates. That technician was later found to have reached faulty conclusions and to have given inaccurate testimony.

"The system does correct itself, but there are clearly still people in prison that are innocent," said Andy Silverman of the Arizona Justice Project which worked on Gates' behalf.

"It's an exciting day," Silverman said. "It's a day that justice is finally being done for someone who's been imprisoned for 28 years."

Gates' freedom leaves DC prosecutors looking for a rapist and a killer nearly 30 years later. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Draper says there are now two victims of the 1981 crime.

"There's Catherine Schilling, 21 years old, brutally raped and murdered. And unfortunately there's also Mr. Gates. He's also a victim."

Gates was happy but subdued as he prepared for his journey to his hometown of Akron, where he was due to arrive Thursday afternoon.

"I'm just saying I'm happy," he said at the bus station in Tucson. "I'm just saying I'm happy to be part of the community."

Gates could receive at least $50,000 compensation for each of the 28 years he spent wrongly imprisoned. Additional compensation could be ordered.

"He knew that he was going to get let go because he kept telling them that he was innocent and had nothing to do with it," said James Bryant, who did time at the Tucson prison with Gates.

"He knew that eventually something was going to come down. He got a blessing," Bryant said. "He knew that he didn't do it."