More than two decades ago, a California woman was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for 25 years for the murder of her husband.
Jane Dorotik has always maintained that she did not kill her husband of thirty years, Bob Dorotik, and over the years she has filed many motions requesting new tests be conducted on the evidence used in her case.
Dorotik, now in her mid-70s, finally managed to get her message across to the court that the evidence against her in 2001 needed to be further assessed.
During the summer of 2020, when prisons were overcrowded and COVID-19 was an issue, Dorotik was temporarily and conditionally released from prison.
Her legal team hoped the release would become permanent pending a court overturning her jury’s verdict.
Jane Dorotik, now in her mid-70s, spoke to CBS’ “48 Hours” about her 22-year prison sentence for her husband’s murder. CBS journalist Erin Moriarty has been covering the case for 24 years
Jane (left) and Bob (right) Dorotik lived in the peaceful foothills of San Diego before their family’s lives were turned upside down when Bob was murdered and Jane became the accused murderer
That’s exactly what happened during a remote hearing, much to Dorotik’s surprise. The state requested that her murder conviction be quashed. The judge agreed to the question.
But the good news was shortly followed by the San Diego County District Attorney’s attempt to retry her. A judge allowed the retrial to proceed, but said some of the key evidence used against her two decades ago would not be admissible.
Then, in May 2022, as jury selection was about to begin again, the deputy district attorney came in and said the state no longer felt the evidence they had was “sufficient to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt and twelve convince members of the jury. Therefore, we request that the court…dismiss the charges at this time.”
Dorotik was once again, unconditionally, a free woman.
In an interview with CBS’ “48 Hours,” Dorotik spoke with Erin Moriarty, who has been covering the case for 24 years.
She described the past 20 years in prison as “torturous in many ways.”
“I think there were a lot of moments where I thought, ‘How do I move forward?'” she said.
On February 13, 2000, Bob Dorotik, then 55 years old, went jogging near the couple’s home in north San Diego and never returned home.
Fearing the worst, Jane Dorotik, who was 53 at the time, reported her husband missing after several hours.
After an overnight search, Bob’s body was found beaten and strangled along his jogging route.
Three days later, Jane Dorotik was charged with murder, based largely on the bloodstains found in the couple’s bedroom.
When the Dorotiks’ home was searched, bloodstains were found in several areas of the bedroom and on the couple’s mattress. Jane explained that her husband had recently suffered a nosebleed and that the couple had two dogs that had bled – but authorities did not believe the argument.
In the years after her conviction, Jane said her lawyer’s defense strategy was a huge mistake. “I would describe my defense as limited and inadequate,” she later said. She described the theory that her daughter was the killer as ‘absurd’
Investigators quickly determined that Bob Dorotik was murdered at a different location than where his body was found. They then came up with the theory that he had been murdered in the bedroom he shared with his wife.
When the Dorotiks’ home was searched, bloodstains were found in several areas of the bedroom and on the couple’s mattress.
Jane explained that her husband had recently suffered a nosebleed and that the couple had two dogs that had bled, but authorities did not believe this argument.
In court, two of Jane’s children testified against her, and her lawyer offered a defense that blamed the murder on her third child, her daughter Chloe.
Prosecutors threw a litany of theories at Jane during the trial. She had killed her husband for money and to escape a troubled marriage.
The couple had separated in 1997 but reconciled and were believed to have been living happily together for about 18 months when Bob was murdered.
In the years after her conviction, Jane said her lawyer’s defense strategy was a huge mistake.
“I would describe my defense as limited and inadequate,” she later said. She described the theory that her daughter was the killer as “absurd.”
“That was the worst strategy of my life ever… I said to my lawyer, ‘If anything happens to Claire, I’m going to stand up and say I did it.'”
Jane Dorotik is pictured on the left in 2000
Pictured: Evidence used at the time. The sheriff’s crime lab was not accredited at the time and made several significant errors in processing the evidence
The bloody syringes found in the Dorotik’s waste were, according to Jane, the syringes she used to medicate her horses
A member of the legal team that ultimately secured Dorotik’s release said the argument used by the prosecution to link her truck to tire tracks found near her husband’s body was essentially “junk science.”
In the 22 years since she was incarcerated, Dorotik has worked extensively with the Loyola Project for Innocence at Loyola Marymount University School of Law in Los Angeles.
It was through the work of LPI that Dorotik’s release was secured in July 2020 and her murder conviction was ultimately overturned.
The organization urged the prosecutor to admit that the criminal who prepared the “bloodstain pattern analysis” for the jury in 2000 was not a competent expert, nor was the criminal who identified the tire prints near Bob’s body on which the prosecutor based their argument.
Additionally, the sheriff’s crime lab was not accredited at the time and made several significant errors in processing the evidence.
When she was finally released, Dorotik, who says the case and conviction destroyed everything she and her late husband had built together, said: “After fighting for almost twenty years to have my conviction overturned, I am so grateful that I finally see this day. ‘
‘I have maintained from day one that I had nothing to do with my husband’s murder.
“Spending almost twenty years in prison, falsely convicted of murdering the man I loved, has been incredibly painful.
“I literally lost everything in my life that Bob and I had built together. “Thanks to my amazing legal team at Loyola Law School, I feel like I can finally breathe and start thinking about planning for the future,” she said.