MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED 10 YEARS LATER BECAUSE KEY WITNESS WAS BLIND
A MAN has been granted a new trial after spending more than a decade in jail for murder, largely on the testimony of an eyewitness who turned out to be blind.
Darien Harris, from Chicago, was 18 – and just a few weeks away from graduating – when he was arrested for the fatal shooting of Rondell Moore in 2011.
After being picked out of a line-up by the star witness, the student, who had no criminal record, soon found himself charged and convicted of first degree murder.
Harris was sentenced to 76 years behind bars, but has maintained his innocence.
The now 30-year-old engaged the services of the Exoneration Project (EP), which works to free the wrongfully convicted.
“Mr Harris has spent 12 years wrongfully imprisoned, having been arrested when he was just 18,” EP said in a statement on Facebook.
“His conviction was secured almost solely through the testimony of a legally blind eyewitness, who the court repeatedly referred to as credible when wrongfully convicting Mr Harris.
“The alleged eyewitness was discovered to be suffering from advanced glaucoma at the time of the crime.
“In addition to his medical condition that severely limited visual acuity, surveillance video of the crime reveals that the witness was much farther from the scene than he claimed to be.”
Last week, prosecutors agreed to nullify his conviction and sentence, but said that they planned to retry Harris.
He will be transferred from the Menard Correctional Centre to the Cook County Jail while he awaits his new trial.
His attorney, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, said while they are happy prosecutors agreed to throw out his original conviction, they are disappointed that they want to retry him, “despite all of the evidence of his innocence,” CBS News reported.
“There is significant evidence of Mr Harris’ innocence that makes it so that we are surprised that the state is retrying the case,” she said.
Ms Myerscough-Mueller said her client will be back in court on Tuesday, December 19. – metro.co.uk