Man convicted in 1990 rape case is released, granted new trial

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — After 28 years behind bars for a crime he says he didn’t commit, John Kunco walked out of prison Wednesday into the arms of his family.

Kunco was found guilty of rape and other charges for a 1990 attack on a woman in her New Kensington home. He was sentenced to serve 45 to 90 years in prison.

“The commonwealth really needs to learn what they’re doing before they put an innocent man in jail,” Kunco said.

The Innocence Project took on his case, and new evidence convinced a judge on Wednesday to grant Kunco a new trial.

“It took six attorneys over 10 years to get him out and that says something about our justice system,” said Karen Thompson of the Innocence Project. “The fact he was in for a crime he didn’t commit meaning a man is still out there and may have hurt more women.”

Kunco was greeted with handshakes and hugs after being released on $10,000 unsecured bail. He will be required to report to probation once a week until he finds a job. He’ll be staying with his nephew in McKees Rocks.

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He says the only thing that got him through prison was phone calls with his daughter.

“I knew it would probably happen, I just didn’t think it would happen today,” said Lauren Kunco, who was four years old when her father went to prison.

The victim in the case, who was 55 at the time of the crime, is no longer alive. Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani said Wednesday’s decision today doesn’t take away any of the horrible acts that happened to her, but that some of the commonwealth’s evidence is problematic.

"My whole life, they took everything away from me for no reason," John Kunco said.

The Innocence Project tested a blanket from the rape with new technology, and say bloodstains on it belong to a man but do not match Kunco. Attorneys hope to retest a cord used to electrocute the victim during the attack, as well as underwear from the scene, to extract more DNA evidence.

Feliciani said it’s one of the most egregious assaults he’s reviewed but said he was more outraged an innocent man could have been convicted and spent 30 years in jail.

“Somebody was put behind bars for something he didn’t do, but somebody who did it was let out and let go,” said Trisha Kunco, John Kunco’s niece.

Cox Media Group