On the night of September 28, 1984, a woman was kidnapped from the Parkway City Mall in Huntsville, Alabama. The woman, who had given birth just three weeks earlier, told police she was shoved into her car in the parking lot of the mall around 9:00 p.m., then driven to the nearby parking lot of United Valley Methodist Church, where she was raped. After the perpetrator drove away, the woman ran to a neighboring house and called police at approximately 9:25 p.m.
The woman described her attacker as a white male in his mid-twenties with light brown or dark blond hair. She said his face looked unshaven, appearing to have several days of stubble, and he wore blue jeans and a knee-length black overcoat.
As part of the woman’s medical examination, a rape kit was performed, including a vaginal swab.
In the weeks following the crime, the victim identified 23-year-old Mark Monroe Geeslin from a photo array at her home, which consisted of 25 photos, shown to her in small groups. She identified him again in a six-man live lineup at the police station. Geeslin, who had recently been paroled from prison after being convicted of a string of robberies, was arrested on October 12, 1984, and charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape. Geeslin was taken to the Madison County Health Department, where he submitted samples for testing, including hair, saliva, blood, and semen.
Geeslin’s jury trial began on January 30, 1985 in Madison County Circuit Court, with Judge S.A. “Bud” Watson Jr. presiding. Watson had been the judge at Geeslin’s previous robbery trial. The case was prosecuted by Madison County Assistant District Attorney James Accardi, and attorney Joe Berry defended Geeslin. The victim identified Geeslin in the courtroom as the person who had kidnapped and raped her.
City detective Bud Parker testified regarding the woman's identifications of Geeslin in person and in a photo. Parker said that when he brought Geeslin in for questioning, Geeslin said he was not involved in the crime. Parker testified that Geeslin told him he had been at the Parkway City Mall on the night of the crimes but had seen a movie and then gone home.
Two forensic scientists, Roger Morrison and John Kilbourne, testified for the state about the seminal fluids and hair samples from Geeslin, as well as the rape kit, though available records do not specify the substance of their testimony.
The defense presented four alibi witnesses who testified that Geeslin was watching television with them at the home of his friend William Perry at the time of the reported crime. The witnesses included Perry, his son, and two others. They testified that Geeslin arrived at the house about 9:00p.m. Available records do not specify whether Geeslin testified.
The jury found Geeslin guilty of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape on February 6, 1985. The court sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences.
Two weeks after Geeslin’s conviction, his attorney learned that the woman’s vaginal swab contained semen that tested positive for gonorrhea and that Geeslin’s semen sample, taken shortly after his arrest, had tested negative for the disease. Geeslin did not yet have an attorney at the time he provided the semen sample.
On the basis of this evidence, Geeslin filed a motion for a new trial, claiming the state had not complied with its obligation to disclose these test results to the defense.
At a hearing regarding Geeslin’s motion for a new trial, Accardi testified that he did not mention the test results because Geeslin had been informed that his semen was being tested for gonorrhea at the time of the test. Accardi testified that he assumed the defense had access to the test results. The police officer who took Geeslin in for his post-arrest testing at the health department testified that he had told Geeslin what test was being administered and why. Geeslin testified that he had not been told that a gonorrhea test specifically was being performed and had assumed all the testing being done was routine. The parties agreed that Geeslin’s attorney had not been informed of the gonorrhea testing or results, despite the attorney requesting copies of any testing done in connection with the case. The motion was denied.
Geeslin’s conviction was affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. On November 7, 1986, the Supreme Court of Alabama reversed and remanded the case on the basis that the prosecution’s failure to produce the gonorrhea test results adversely impacted the fundamental fairness of Geeslin’s trial. The state sought review in the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting Geeslin’s convictions be reinstated. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of Geeslin’s convictions on May 4, 1987, without comment.
In January 1988, the state retried Geeslin in Madison County Circuit Court with Judge Jeri Blankenship presiding. James Chadbourne prosecuted the case and Tommy Parker represented Geeslin.
The victim identified Geeslin in the courtroom, saying she was certain he was the person who committed the crimes.
Mary Bruton, Geeslin’s former mother-in-law, testified that she had seen Geeslin at the mall on the night of the crime and that the two sat and talked at around 8:50p.m. She testified that he was wearing a dark coat and looked like he had not shaved in several days. Karen Turner, a clerk at the mall, also identified Geeslin as having been at the mall on the night in question.
The victim’s gynecologist testified, stating that the rapist had passed gonorrhea on to the victim, but that “a person can carry gonorrhea organisms and transfer it from one person to another without having the disease.”
Crime scene investigator David Sharp testified that Geeslin’s fingerprints, hair, blood, and saliva did not conclusively link him to the crime.
Geeslin took the stand and denied any involvement in the rape and kidnapping. His attorney argued that although Geeslin was at the mall on the night of the crime, he had arrived at William Perry’s house by 9:00p.m., the approximate time of the attack, and this was a case of mistaken identity. Two of Geeslin’s girlfriends testified that they had sexual intercourse with him within several days before and after the rape occurred, and neither of them had contracted gonorrhea.
The director of the Madison County Health Department, Dr. Lawrence Robey, testified that Geeslin’s negative test for gonorrhea approximately two weeks after the crime did not mean he did not have gonorrhea at the time of the crime. Though blood testing at that time could have shown if Geeslin had taken antibiotics to clear up gonorrhea, no such testing was done by the state.
The jury acquitted Geeslin of both charges on January 18, 1988. News articles following his acquittal quoted his original judge, Bud Watson Jr., saying he was considering revoking Geeslin’s parole for his robbery crimes and returning him to prison; available records are unclear on whether this parole revocation occurred.
- Meghan Barrett Cousino
Posting Date: 07-17-2025
Last Update Date: 07-17-2025
