Supreme Court orders review of sexual assault conviction

The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to take another look at a sexual assault conviction after the victim recanted her story.

Leonard Callwell Craine received three life sentences on three counts of sexually assaulting a girl who was 11 years old at the time. He has maintained his innocence through a series of appeals since his 1991 conviction. All were rejected by the lower courts.

Craine's federal public defender asked the Nevada Supreme Court to return the appeal to district court for a hearing into Craine's claim of innocence when the victim changed her story and said Craine is innocent.

"The victim's affidavit states that she was 11 years old and living with her mother and stepfather at the time of appellant's trial, that her trial testimony implicating appellant was false, that her stepfather was in fact the person who had sexually abused her and that her stepfather convinced her to provide false testimony against appellant," according to the Supreme Court order.

"Under the unusual circumstances presented, we have concluded the ends of justice will best be served by a remand to the district court for an evidentiary hearing on appellant's claim of actual innocence," Justices William Maupin, Myron Leavitt and Nancy Becker ruled.