A California man who has been in jail for 25 years for a homicide he didn’t commit has been exonerated and ordered launched by a choose after prosecutors agreed he was wrongly convicted.
Miguel Solorio, 44, was arrested in 1998 for a deadly drive-by capturing in Whittier, California, and was later convicted and sentenced to life with out the potential of parole.
Superior Court docket Choose William Ryan overturned Solorio’s conviction on Thursday throughout a courtroom listening to in Los Angeles and the state’s Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation was given as much as 5 days to course of Solorio’s launch from Mule Creek State Jail.
After the listening to concluded, Solorio thanked his attorneys from the Northern California Innocence Challenge, describing them as his “dream staff.”
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Miguel Solorio, 44, was arrested in 1998 for a deadly drive-by capturing in Whittier, California, and was later convicted and sentenced to life with out the potential of parole. (Northern California Innocence Challenge by way of AP)
“It’s like a dream I don’t wish to get up from,” he mentioned. “Today lastly got here.”
Solorio’s attorneys argued the case towards him was primarily based closely on a since-debunked methodology of figuring out a suspect that entails clouding a witness’s reminiscence by exhibiting pictures of the identical individual time and again.
Earlier than Solorio’s case was within the information, 4 eyewitnesses who have been proven his photograph didn’t establish him because the suspect – some even recognized a unique individual – however legislation enforcement refused to pursue different leads. As a substitute, authorities on the time continued to current the witnesses with pictures of Solorio till a few of them ultimately recognized him, in line with his attorneys.
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California’s Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation was given as much as 5 days to course of Solorio’s launch from Mule Creek State Jail. (Getty)
“This case is a tragic instance of what occurs when legislation enforcement officers develop tunnel imaginative and prescient of their pursuit of a suspect,” mentioned Sarah Tempo, an legal professional with the Northern California Innocence Challenge at Santa Clara College Faculty of Legislation. “As soon as a witness talked about Solorio’s title, legislation enforcement officers zeroed in on solely him, disregarding different proof and doable suspects, and placing their very own judgment about guilt or innocence above the information.”
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The Los Angeles District Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned in a letter final month that it had “confidently and definitively” concluded that Solorio is entitled to be free of jail.
The district legal professional’s letter famous that “new documentable scientific consensus emerged in 2020 {that a} witness’s reminiscence for a suspect needs to be examined solely as soon as, as even the check itself contaminates the witness’s reminiscence.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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