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Murder charges against Paul House may have been dropped, but questions about his involvement in the rape and murder of Carolyn Muncey remain.

Muncey went missing from her rural Tennessee home on July 13, 1985. Her body was found a day later in a wooded area. She had been beaten and raped. A friend of her husband, House, claimed he had been alone at home at the time Muncey was killed. But police determined that House had left his home for at least an hour that night, and that he returned with unexplained cuts and bruises.

House, already on parole for other sex offenses, was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to death. He spent 22 years on death row.

This week, all charges against Paul House were dropped.

It seems that the semen found on Muncey’s body matched her husband, not House. Blood under Muncey’s fingernails also does not match House. Nor does DNA found on cigarette butts at the crime scene.

Yet, questions remain.

How did Muncey’s blood get onto House’s jeans? The court has determined that it could have spilled there during Muncey’s autopsy, or through mishandling by police at the crime scene.

But that raises even more questions. Why would police have taken clothing confiscated from a suspect back to the crime scene? Why would clothing from a suspect be allowed anywhere near an autopsy table?

Although District Attorney Paul Phillips wrote the petition calling for charges against House to be dropped, he has not conceded that House is completely innocent. He stated that “the new evidence raises a reasonable doubt that [House] acted alone and the possibility that others were involved in the crime.” But he says the “substantial sentence” House has already served is another reason the charges have now been dropped.

Police in Los Angeles have caught a break on a decades old cold case.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Westside Rapist claimed dozens of victims, mostly older white females. At the time, police were unable to narrow down their list of suspects and lacked the technology to make a conclusive identification. But in 2002, while reviewing 6000 cold cases and using more advanced science, police were able to match DNA from several of the cases.

Then, in March of this year, a match was finally made with a suspect, 72-year-old John Floyd Thomas Jr., who had recently provided a DNA sample for California’s sex offender database.

Thomas’ history matches the modus operandi and circumstances of the earlier murders. Should the identification prove conclusive, police may have finally captured one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history.

Some of the most popular shows on television are crime dramas. In almost all cases, the stories focus on teams of intrepid investigators using wit, guile, and technology to capture bad guys.

Now there’s a new show on the air. But it’s not fiction, and the bad guys — if there are any — have already been caught.

Dallas DNA focuses on the work of investigators to clear — or confirm — the convictions of men who claim to be innocent. The series was inspired by the work of the Conviction Integrity Unit, formed after Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins took office in January 2007.

If the series is successful, perhaps more crime dramas will focus on the innocent, rather than the guilty.

Pennsylvania is one of 46 states with laws providing post-conviction DNA access. That means that individuals convicted of a crime can request — and must be granted — access to DNA testing that could prove their innocence or guilt.

Unfortunately, what the law allows and what actually happens are two different things.

Anthony Wright has been in prison for nearly 20 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit. He’s asked for DNA testing, but prosecutors have so far refused to grant his request.

First the prosecutors claimed that since Wright confessed to the crime, he isn’t entitle to testing. (According to the Innocence Project, “One-quarter of the 237 people exonerated by DNA testing gave a false confession or admission to crimes they didn’t commit.”)

Then the prosecutors said that testing isn’t justified unless there’s reasonable doubt about the individual’s guilt. Of course, if there was otherwise “reasonable doubt” the individual would not have been convicted beyond a reasonable doubt in the first place.

Attorneys from the Innocence Project have argued the case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but it could be months before the court reaches a decision. In the meantime, Wright has little choice but to wait.

Back in 1983, former Saskatchewan cabinet minister Colin Thatcher was convicted in the murder of his ex-wife, JoAnn Wilson. Thatcher maintained his innocence, but still served 22 years in prison.

He was paroled in 2006 and moved to his family’s ranch near Moose Jaw. There he began writing a book, Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame, in which he details his trial, appeals, years in prison, and — most notably — an alternative theory about Wilson’s murder based on evidence not heard in court.

While some jurisdictions have laws prohibiting convicted felons from profiting from the proceeds of a crime, Saskatchewan does not. Of course, Thatcher could write and publish his book without making any money from it, but that apparently won’t be the case here; he’s already been paid an advance by his publisher, ECW Press, and will be paid royalties should the book sell, as it probably will.

Profits aside, it will be interesting to see what new evidence Thatcher presents, and whether his claim to innocence may be valid.