HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - A Maryland appeals court has reversed a man's rape conviction four days after he was found beaten to death in a state prison cell.
The Court of Special Appeals issued the ruling Wednesday in the case of 69-year-old Roger Lee Largent. Maryland's second-highest court found that Largent's jury conviction last year for second-degree rape was based on the testimony of a nurse who gave an unqualified expert opinion that a woman can be raped but show no physical signs of an assault.
Largent maintained the sex was consensual.
Largent had been convicted of a third-degree sex offense in 1999 and was a registered sex offender.
Maryland State Police are investigating Largent's slaying Saturday at the maximum-security Western Correctional Institution. The state prison agency says investigators have identified an inmate suspect.