Southern California Man Found Innocent and Freed After 20 Years in Prison
A Los Angeles man, who was convicted 20 years ago of a fatal drive by shooting, has been released, according to LATimes.com. He had been arrested in 1991, at age 16, after six teenagers who had been standing near the shot victim identified him as the shooter. The man insisted he was at home watching television at the time of the shooting. He was convicted on the word of six teenagers, the only evidence in the case, and sentenced to life in prison.
Since then, five of the six witnesses, including the victim’s son, have recanted their identifications. The sixth man refused to testify. The conviction was overturned by a judge who found that there was no longer confidence in the jury’s verdict.
Putting an innocent man in prison has unpredictable ramifications. The innocent man has a son who was born shortly after he was arrested; and his father died while he was in prison. Despite losing a large part of his life and being absent for key events during the past 20 years, the freed man insisted he was not angry and was simply excited about living a normal life again.
This sad case illustrates how important it is to obtain high quality legal representation if you are ever suspected of a crime. It is important to fight the charges from the very beginning of the case. Criminal convictions can be very hard to overturn, even if new evidence surfaces or witnesses change their stories. If you have been accused of a crime in Southern California, contact the skilled Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys at the Law Offices of Lawrence Wolf. Call us today at 1-800-968-2734to learn more about your rights.
