Font ResizeGrega, who was convicted in 1995 of murdering his wife, will be released into the custody of his mother shortly.
In a decision issued on Aug.21, Judge John Wesley of Windham Superior Court ordered Grega released on bail pending a new tria
"We consider this a very encouraging development," said Grega's attorney, Ian Carleton, from Burlington. "I have faith that this time justice will prevail in court."
As a condition of his release Grega must live with his mother, who, at just past 4 p.m., was on her way from Brattleboro to Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, to pick him up.
Though Windham County State's Attorney Tracy Shrive had appealed to the court to let Grega's conviction to stand, On Aug. 20, she and Carleton filed a joint motion stating in light of the discovery of DNA evidence, Grega's conviction should be vacated and a new trial scheduled.
In addition to living with his mother, Grega must check in daily with a police department in or nearby Lake Ronlonloma, New York, where his mother lives.
He was also forbidden from having contact with the family of his deceased wife unless her family or their attorney initiates the contact.
The defense also requested that Wesley see the case through fruition as he has presided over the matter for the past two years.
Christine Grega was found dead on the evening of Sept. 12, 1994, strangled, raped,
Grega, now 50, his wife, and their then 2-year-old son traveled to West Dover for a vacation in the days before the murder.
When asked by police, Grega gave conflicting stories about what had happened the day of his wife's death, first stating her injuries were accidental and later blaming her murder on two painters who were working in the condo complex, Shriver said.
In November 2010, a request was made to test certain items collected from the scene of the crime including swabs from various parts of Christine's body.
Testing on the swabs was conducted on May 14 of this year, which revealed male DNA that didn't match Grega's.
In mid-July, Grega's legal team, which includes the Vermont Defender General's Office and Carleton, filed a motion asking that their client be freed or at least granted a new trial.
"It is difficult to overstate the game-changing nature of this new evidence, especially in a case where, as here, the evidence of Mr. Grega's guilt has at all times been purely circumstantial," the lawyers wrote in the motion. "Under the reasonable doubt standard, this new DNA evidence - which was never presented to the jury and therefore was never considered in deliberations - would have not just slightly, but vastly, increased the likelihood of an acquittal or a hung jury in the original trial. Put simply, we now have compelling evidence that John Grega did not commit the crime for which he has served nearly two decades in jail."
The motion, filed in Windham County Superior Court, was the first under the 2008 Innocence Protection Act, a Vermont law that allows those who have been convicted of certain serious crimes to ask the state to consider results from the testing of biological evidence, which might not have been available at the time of their original trial.
