A California man convicted of attempted murder in 1990 has been declared innocent and released from prison.
Daniel Saldana, 55, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for allegedly shooting into a car containing six teenagers who were just leaving a high school football game on October 27, 1989. Two of the students were injured but survived, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said in <a href="https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/district-attorney-gasc-n-announces-exoneration-man-custody-over-33-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a press release</a>. Two people were said to have been the shooters, mistaking the teens for gang members.
Even though it was believed two people were the shooters, Saldana and two others were charged with six counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle, the district attorney’s office said. Saldana, who was 22 at the time of the shooting and working full time as a construction worker, was convicted and sentenced to 45 years to life in state prison.
In 2017, one of the other men convicted of the crime said at his parole hearing that Saldana wasn’t involved in any way and wasn’t present for the shooting, according to the DA’s office. A former deputy district attorney who was present at the hearing reportedly did not share the information with Saldana or his attorney.
That information was finally shared with the DA’s office in February 2023, and the district attorney’s office launched an official investigation. The office’s Conviction Integrity Unit prioritized their investigation, and after a “thorough investigation,” along with an investigation by the DA’s office with the Baldwin Park Police Department, it was determined that Saldana had not committed the crime.
“As prosecutors, our duty is not simply to secure convictions but to seek justice. When someone is wrongfully convicted, it is a failure of our justice system and it is our responsibility to right that wrong. We owe it to the individual who was wrongfully convicted and to the public that justice is served,” Los Angeles District Attorney Gascón said in a statement.
At a press conference on Thursday, Saldana and Gascón discussed the exoneration, with Saldana saying he was grateful to those who set him free.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a struggle, every day waking up knowing you&#8217;re innocent and here I am locked up in a cell, crying for help,&#8221; Saldana said, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel-saldana-california-man-cleared-shooting-freed-33-years-prison/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to CBS News</a>.
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Gascón also apologized to Saldana and his family.
&#8220;I know that this won&#8217;t bring you back the decades you endured in prison,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But I hope our apology brings some small comfort to you as you begin your new life.&#8221;
Gascón did not elaborate on what evidence concluded Saldana was innocent, and his office didn’t respond to a Daily Wire request for more information prior to press time.

Daniel Saldana

He Spent 33 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn’t Commit. He Was Just Declared Innocent And Freed.

He Spent 33 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn't Commit. He Was Just Declared Innocent And Freed.

California

George Gascon

U.S.

Wrongful Conviction

A Baltimore man convicted of murder in 1992 was finally exonerated after evidence showed the two witnesses who testified against him were unreliable.
In 1991, two people claimed to have witnessed Anthony Hall chasing a man down an alley – a man who ended up shot and killed. The first witness, Nancy Hill, said she had been out walking with her five children on the night of the murder and that the victim of the crime, who has not been named, ran past her and knocked down one of her kids, <a href="https://exonerate.org/anthony-hall-finally-exonerated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project</a>.
Nancy said that two men carrying weapons then ran past her, one of whom she identified as Anthony Hall even though the man’s face was obscured by a hoodie. She said she knew Hall from the neighborhood, which is how she was able to identify him.
The second eyewitness, Gerald Patterson, told police he had been driving by the scene of the crime when he heard gunshots and saw three men running across the street. One of the men, Patterson said, was carrying a weapon. He said Hall was that man.
Hall was convicted based solely on these two eyewitnesses, MAIP reported, but even the victim’s brother thought Hall was innocent.
MAIP obtained the police file decades after Hall had been convicted and learned that there were multiple eyewitnesses, including one who was adamant that Hall was not one of the perpetrators and two others who gave descriptions that did not match Hall. Additional undisclosed witnesses informed police of an alternative suspect whose description matched the one given by other witnesses and who had a motive to commit the crime.
It was also discovered that Patterson, one of the named eyewitnesses, initially told police that he arrived at the scene 10 to 15 minutes after the shooting had occurred. A passenger in his car had confirmed this timeline, but this information was never disclosed to Hall’s defense attorney.
After years of working on the case, MAIP was finally able to talk to witnesses, two of whom were in Patterson’s car the night he claimed to have seen Hall running across the street. They confirmed they had arrived sometime after the shooting and never saw any perpetrators. In 2022, Patterson admitted that he never saw the shooting and only gave Hall’s name because he had been arrested on drug charges and police were allegedly threatening him.
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In March, Patterson and the other witnesses who denied Hall was involved testified at a hearing for Hall’s petition for a writ of actual innocence. Hall had been on parole since 2017 but was still fighting to completely clear his name.
Prosecutors tried to argue that Hall hadn’t met the standard for actual innocence because Nancy Hill’s testimony hadn’t been challenged, but the judge rejected the argument and granted Hall’s petition.

African American in Prison

He Spent 25 Years In Prison For A Murder He Didn’t Commit. He Was Just Fully Exonerated.

He Spent 25 Years In Prison For A Murder He Didn't Commit. He Was Just Fully Exonerated.

Baltimore

Crime

Maryland

Adnan Syed, who had charges dropped against him in October after he spent more than 20 years in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, will remain out of prison despite his conviction being reinstated.
A Maryland appellate court, in a 2-1 decision, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/adnan-syed-subject-of-hit-serial-podcast-has-conviction-reinstated-by-maryland-appeals-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> that a lower court had violated the victim’s family’s right to attend a critical hearing about vacating Syed’s conviction, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/28/adnan-syed-conviction-reinstated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The appellate court ordered the hearing be held again, which “results in the reinstatement of the original convictions and sentence,” the court wrote.
But that doesn’t mean that Syed must return to prison since the court ordered a 60-day stay on the order, which &#8220;gives the parties time to assess how to proceed in response to this Court&#8217;s decision.&#8221;
Syed’s attorney, Erica Suter, said in <a href="https://people.com/crime/adnan-syed-free-for-time-being-lawyer-slams-court/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a> obtained by People Magazine that the appellate court’s decision &#8220;was not about Adnan&#8217;s innocence but about notice and mootness.&#8221;
&#8220;The Appellate Court of Maryland has reinstated Adnan&#8217;s convictions, not because the Motion to Vacate was erroneous, but because Ms. Lee&#8217;s brother did not appear in person at the vacatur hearing,&#8221; Suter said. &#8220;We agree with the dissenting judge that the appeal is moot and that Mr. Lee&#8217;s attendance over Zoom was sufficient.&#8221;
&#8220;There is no basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the status of a convicted felon,&#8221; Suter said. &#8220;For the time being, Adnan remains a free man.&#8221;
The ruling comes after Young Lee, the victim’s brother, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/victims-family-wants-murder-conviction-reinstated-against-adnan-syed-after-he-was-released-from-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argued</a> that he and his family weren’t properly notified of the September 19, 2022, hearing that resulted in Syed’s release, and only received an email about the hearing three days before it took place. Young Lee <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hae-min-lees-family-demands-appellate-court-reinstate-murder-convictio-rcna68792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NBC News that he was not able to travel to Maryland on such short notice, as he lived and worked in California. In February, the Lee family asked an appellate court to reinstate the murder conviction against Syed.
“We respect and we honor the fact that Hae’s family suffers so much, and we just wished that they could get the answers that they can have,” Syed told the outlet. “We just hope that the court also recognizes that our family suffers, too.”
Suter also stated at the time that Lee’s family didn’t have the right to play any kind of active role in the hearing that led to Syed’s release.
“What the victim has is a right of information and a right to not be caught off-guard as to what is happening,” Suter told judges. “This is not an environment in which their impact should be influencing the court’s decision.”
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn decided to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/adnan-syed-subject-of-hit-serial-podcast-released-from-prison-conviction-overturned" target="_blank" rel="noopener">overturn Syed’s murder conviction</a> in September after the popular “Serial” podcast raised doubts about his guilt. Prosecutors had revealed there were other suspects, as well as concerns about the evidence used against him. A year-long investigation involving prosecutors and Suter, Syed’s attorney, discovered that authorities knew of at least one alternate suspect prior to Syed’s trial but withheld the information from his defense. This, the prosecutors and Suter argued, was known as a Brady violation.
Hae Min Lee was 18 years old when she was found strangled to death and buried in Leakin Park near Baltimore, Maryland. Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend who was 17 at the time of her killing, was alleged to have argued with her in a car before strangling her to death. Prosecutors alleged Syed committed the murder because he couldn’t handle Lee breaking up with him.

Adnan Syed

Adnan Syed Remains Free Despite Judge’s Order Reinstating Murder Conviction

Adnan Syed Remains Free Despite Judge's Order Reinstating Murder Conviction

Murder

The man wrongfully convicted of raping “The Lovely Bones” author Alice Sebold will receive $5.5 million in compensation from New York state.
Anthony Broadwater spent 16 years in prison for allegedly raping Sebold, who detailed the alleged crime in her 1999 memoir, “Lucky,” The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/man-wrongfully-convicted-of-raping-the-lovely-bones-author-has-finally-been-cleared">reported</a>. Broadwater was exonerated on November 22, 2021, more than 20 years after his prison sentence ended in 1999.
After his name was finally cleared, he sued the state of New York for $50 million for unjust imprisonment and the decades he spent on the sex offender registry stemming from his wrongful conviction. Now, the state has agreed to pay him $5.5 million to settle the lawsuit, The Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthony-broadwater-man-exonerated-of-alice-sebolds-rape-to-get-dollar55m-after-new-york-lawsuit">reported</a>.
One of Broadwater’s attorneys <a href="https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_168011146147610&amp;key=07fc33cfae8c975920593b7e84c31bbc&amp;libId=lftplcds0102c1o6000UL1wewdsbtgj52l&amp;loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fanthony-broadwater-man-exonerated-of-alice-sebolds-rape-to-get-dollar55m-after-new-york-lawsuit&amp;ccpaConsent=1---&amp;v=1&amp;out=https%3A%2F%2Fgothamist.com%2Fnews%2Fny-to-pay-55-million-to-man-wrongfully-convicted-in-1981-rape-of-alice-sebold&amp;title=New%20York%20to%20Pay%20%245.5M%20to%20Man%20Exonerated%20of%20Author%20Alice%20Sebold%E2%80%99s%20Rape&amp;txt=Gothamist">told</a> Gothamist that his client was “relieved” by the settlement, calling the original conviction “the epitome of racism.”
Broadwater’s attorneys have signed the settlement agreement, as has the New York attorney general’s office, but it still has to be signed by a judge to be finalized, The New York Times <a href="https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_168011153523912&amp;key=07fc33cfae8c975920593b7e84c31bbc&amp;libId=lftplcds0102c1o6000UL1wewdsbtgj52l&amp;loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fanthony-broadwater-man-exonerated-of-alice-sebolds-rape-to-get-dollar55m-after-new-york-lawsuit&amp;ccpaConsent=1---&amp;v=1&amp;out=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F03%2F27%2Fnyregion%2Fanthony-broadwater-alice-sebold-wrongful-conviction.html&amp;title=New%20York%20to%20Pay%20%245.5M%20to%20Man%20Exonerated%20of%20Author%20Alice%20Sebold%E2%80%99s%20Rape&amp;txt=%3Cspan%3ERead%20it%20at%20%3C%2Fspan%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22ReadItAtLink__name%22%3EThe%20New%20York%20Times%3C%2Fspan%3E">reported</a>.
Sebold had written in “Lucky” that she was a first-year student at Syracuse in May 1981 when she was raped. Sebold, who is white, claimed she saw a black man months later and believed he was her attacker.
“He was smiling as he approached. He recognized me. It was a stroll in the park to him; he had met an acquaintance on the street,” Sebold wrote. “‘Hey, girl,’ he said. ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’”
She wrote that she said nothing in return.
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“I looked directly at him. Knew his face had been the face over me in the tunnel,” she wrote.
She later went to the police, not knowing her alleged attacker’s name.
“An officer suggested the man in the street must have been Broadwater, who had supposedly been seen in the area. Sebold gave Broadwater the pseudonym Gregory Madison in her book,” the Associated Press <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/23/alice-sebold-1981-rape-conviction-overturned">reported</a>.
Sebold was unable to identify Broadwater in a police lineup after he was arrested, instead picking the photo of a different man and claiming, “the expression in his eyes told me that if we were alone, if there were no wall between us, he would call me by name and then kill me.”
During the trial, however, Sebold identified Broadwater as her attacker. The other piece of evidence that led to his conviction came from an expert who said microscopic hair analysis determined Broadwater had committed the crime. As the AP noted, that “type of analysis is now considered junk science by the US Department of Justice.”
Broadwater’s attorney, David Hammond, would later tell the Post-Standard of Syracuse: “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
Sebold has apologized for getting the wrong man convicted.

Anthony Broadwater

He Was Falsely Accused Of Rape By ‘The Lovely Bones’ Author. New York Will Pay Him $5.5 Million.

He Was Falsely Accused Of Rape By 'The Lovely Bones' Author. New York Will Pay Him $5.5 Million.

false accusations

New York

Adnan Syed, who had charges dropped against him in October after he spent more than 20 years in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, has had his conviction reinstated by a Maryland appellate court panel.
The appellate court, in a 2-1 decision, ruled that a lower court had violated the victim’s family’s right to attend a critical hearing about vacating Syed’s conviction, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/28/adnan-syed-conviction-reinstated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The appellate court ordered the hearing be held again, which “results in the reinstatement of the original convictions and sentence,” the court wrote.
The ruling comes after Young Lee, the victim’s brother, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/victims-family-wants-murder-conviction-reinstated-against-adnan-syed-after-he-was-released-from-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argued</a> that he and his family weren’t properly notified of the September 19, 2022, hearing that resulted in Syed’s release, and only received an email about the hearing three days before it took place. Young Lee <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hae-min-lees-family-demands-appellate-court-reinstate-murder-convictio-rcna68792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NBC News that he was not able to travel to Maryland on such short notice, as he lived and worked in California. In February, the Lee family asked an appellate court to reinstate the murder conviction against Syed.
“We respect and we honor the fact that Hae’s family suffers so much, and we just wished that they could get the answers that they can have,” Syed told the outlet. “We just hope that the court also recognizes that our family suffers, too.”
An attorney for Syed, Erica Suter, also stated that Lee’s family didn’t have the right to play any kind of active role in the hearing that led to Syed’s release.
“What the victim has is a right of information and a right to not be caught off-guard as to what is happening,” Suter told judges. “This is not an environment in which their impact should be influencing the court’s decision.”
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn decided to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/adnan-syed-subject-of-hit-serial-podcast-released-from-prison-conviction-overturned" target="_blank" rel="noopener">overturn Syed’s murder conviction</a> in September after the popular “Serial” podcast raised doubts about his guilt. Prosecutors had revealed there were other suspects, as well as concerns about the evidence used against him. A year-long investigation involving prosecutors and Suter, Syed’s attorney, discovered that authorities knew of at least one alternate suspect prior to Syed’s trial but withheld the information from his defense. This, the prosecutors and Suter argued, was known as a Brady violation.
Hae Min Lee was 18 years old when she was found strangled to death and buried in Leakin Park near Baltimore, Maryland, the Sun reported. Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend who was 17 at the time of her killing, was alleged to have argued with her in a car before strangling her to death. Prosecutors alleged Syed committed the murder because he couldn’t handle Lee breaking up with him.
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Syed, however, has always maintained his innocence, and his attorney argued that he may not have spent 23 years in prison if prosecutors hadn’t withheld evidence.
“If that evidence had been disclosed, perhaps Adnan would not have missed his high school graduation, or his pre-med plans, or 23 years of birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, community events, and everyday moments of joy,” Suter said.
The appellate court panel ruled that its decision wouldn’t go into effect for 60 days to allow both parties “time to assess how to proceed in response to this Court’s decision.”

US-NEWS-SERIAL-SYED-3-BZ

Adnan Syed, Subject Of Hit ‘Serial’ Podcast, Has Conviction Reinstated By Maryland Appeals Court

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> man who spent 34 years in prison for a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crime</a> he didn’t commit was just released after prosecutors dismissed the charges against him.
Sidney Holmes, 57, was convicted for his alleged role in a 1988 armed robbery and sentenced to 400 years in prison. But this week, he was released from prison.
“I never lost hope and always knew this day would come,” Holmes said after learning he would be released, according to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=581242314039876&amp;set=pcb.581242667373174" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a> from the Innocence Project of Florida. “I cannot wait to hug my mother in the free world for the first time in over 34 years.”
Holmes was convicted of being the getaway driver for an armed robbery that occurred in 1988 at a convenience store just outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but in November 2020, he contacted the conviction review unit of the Broward County state attorney’s office to have them look into his case. The review unit and the Innocence Project looked into Holmes’ case and found “reasonable doubts about his guilt,” the state attorney’s office said in <a href="https://browardsao.com/conviction-review-unit-second-exoneration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a>.
One of the two victims in the armed robbery identified the getaway vehicle as a brown Oldsmobile Cutlass with a tan roof and a hole in the trunk, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/15/us/sidney-holmes-freed-wrongful-conviction/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. A few weeks later, the victim’s brother saw a brown Cutlass on the road and gave police the license plate number, which was registered to Holmes. Even though Holmes had an alibi and his car had some key differences to the one described by the victim, he was arrested and charged with the crime.
“There was no physical or scientific evidence, nor any corroborating witnesses, linking Mr. Holmes to the crime,” the Innocence Project said.
One of the victims was only able to identify Holmes during a second photo lineup after not being able to identify him during the first lineup.
The state attorney’s office wrote in its press release that prosecutors “determined that Holmes had a plausible claim of innocence because of how he became a suspect and because of the precarious eyewitness identification that was the principal evidence against him at trial.” The office added that it “would not charge him today based on these facts.&#8221;
On Monday, a judge approved a request from the office and the Innocence Project to vacate Holmes’ sentence and conviction. Prosecutors also dismissed the charge and Holmes was released from prison that same day.
As to how Holmes was sentenced to 400 years in prison for being a getaway driver, the conviction review unit’s <a href="https://browardsao.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Conviction-Review-Unit-Final-Memo-Sidney-Holmes-8819279CF10A-PR20405-Response.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">25-page</a> report explains that Holmes had two prior convictions for armed robbery. Both robberies occurred on the same day in 1984 and in both cases, Holmes was in his car while his co-defendant Steven Glover committed the robberies. When police tailed the vehicle, Glover attempted to run before turning himself in while Holmes immediately surrendered. Holmes also admitted to driving the car and gave up Glover, but in the 1988 incident, Holmes said he couldn’t identify the two men involved in the armed robbery (because he wasn’t part of it).
At sentencing, prosecutor Peter Magrino argued that Holmes deserved 825 years in prison and “should not be released from prison while his body is still functioning.” In Florida, a life sentence meant the possibility of parole after 25 years, which Magrino didn’t want, he told the review unit during its investigation.
The judge at the time thought 825 years was “perhaps a little bit too much,” so instead sentenced Holmes to 400 years.

US-NEWS-FLA-HOLMES-FL

He Was Sentenced To 400 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn’t Commit. He Was Just Freed.

He Was Sentenced To 400 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn't Commit. He Was Just Freed.

Florida

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/missouri">Missouri</a> man who has spent the past 28 years in prison had his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/murder">murder</a> conviction <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wrongful-conviction">overturned</a> on Tuesday.
Lamar Johnson, 50, was convicted of the October 1994 murder of Marcus Boyd, who had been shot and killed on his front porch by two masked men, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wrongful-conviction-vacated-3eb7e5fbe6210dbc38b11995902b9947">reported</a>. Johnson was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, while the second suspect, Phil Campbell, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and served just seven years.
Yet Johnson has always maintained that he was miles away from the shooting with his girlfriend at the time. He said he was only away from her for about five minutes to sell drugs on a street corner.
His girlfriend at the time, Erika Barrow, backed up his story. She said it would have been impossible for him to get to Boyd’s home from the friend’s house where they were staying when the murder occurred in the time it took him to step outside for the drug sale.
Helping Johnson’s case was the fact that a witness recanted their testimony and another prison inmate admitted to the killing. James Howard, 46, is already in prison for murder and other crimes committed years after Boyd’s death. He testified at Johnson’s hearing that he had committed Boyd’s murder with Campbell and that Johnson wasn’t present.
It wasn’t the first time Howard admitted to committing the murder. He and Campbell previously had signed affidavits admitting to the crime and swearing Johnson wasn’t with them, the AP reported.
A witness during the original investigation, James Gregory Elking, said he was on the porch with Boyd when he was shot but couldn’t identify the gunmen. Elking testified in December that he agreed to a police lineup, but when he couldn’t identify a suspect, police detective Joseph Nickerson told him: “I know you know who it is.”
Elking testified that he felt “bullied” and “pressured” into naming someone, so he named Johnson. Elking was reportedly paid $4,000 for his testimony.
Nickerson denied any pressure was put on Elking, testifying in December that the witness’ identification of Johnson was based on his eyes.
With this and other evidence, Circuit Judge David Mason ruled Tuesday that “reliable evidence of actual innocence — evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing” was needed to overturn Johnson’s conviction and that the bar had been met.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office had conducted the investigation, along with the Innocence Project, into whether Johnson was innocent of the murder.
“While today brings joy, nothing can restore all that the state stole from him. Nothing will give him back the nearly three decades he lost while separated from his daughters and family,” Johnson’s attorneys said after the ruling. “The evidence that proved his innocence was available at his trial, but it was kept hidden or ignored by those who saw no value in the lives of two young black men from the South Side.”
The Missouri Attorney General’s office opposed Johnson’s release, but didn’t challenge it.

US-NEWS-MO-JOHNSON-KC

He Spent Nearly 28 Years In Prison For A Murder He Didn’t Commit. His Sentence Was Just Vacated.

He Spent Nearly 28 Years In Prison For A Murder He Didn't Commit. His Sentence Was Just Vacated.

Missouri

The family of a murder victim wants the conviction reinstated against the man previously believed to have committed the crime, NBC News reported Thursday.
Adnan Syed was released from prison in September 2022 and eventually had all charges against him relating to the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, dropped.
But now, Lee’s family is asking appellate judges to reinstate the murder conviction against Syed, arguing that their rights were ignored when Syed was released after 23 years in prison. Lee’s death and Syed’s subsequent conviction were the subject of the popular “Serial” podcast’s first season, which raised doubts about Syed’s guilt and helped lead to his release.
Now, Lee’s family have argued that they weren’t properly notified of the September 19, 2022, hearing that resulted in Syed’s release, and only received an email about the hearing three days before it took place. Lee’s brother, Young, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hae-min-lees-family-demands-appellate-court-reinstate-murder-convictio-rcna68792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NBC News that he was not able to travel to Maryland with such short notice, as he lived and worked in California. On Thursday, the Lee family asked an appellate court to reinstate the murder conviction against Syed.
Syed told NBC that while he sympathizes with the family of the victim, his murder conviction shouldn’t be reinstated.
&#8220;We respect and we honor the fact that Hae’s family suffers so much, and we just wished that they could get the answers that they can have,&#8221; Syed told the outlet. &#8220;We just hope that the court also recognizes that our family suffers, too.”
An attorney for Syed, Erica Suter, also stated that Lee’s family didn’t have the right to play any kind of active role in the hearing that led to Syed’s release.
“What the victim has is a right of information and a right to not be caught off-guard as to what is happening,” Suter told judges. “This is not an environment in which their impact should be influencing the court’s decision.”
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn decided to overturn Syed’s murder conviction in September after the popular “Serial” podcast raised doubts about his guilt. Prosecutors had revealed there were other suspects, as well as concerns about the evidence used against him. A yearlong investigation involving prosecutors and Suter, Syed’s attorney, discovered that authorities knew of at least one alternate suspect prior to Syed’s trial but withheld the information from his defense. This, the prosecutors and Suter argued, was known as a Brady violation.
Lee was 18 years old when she was found strangled to death and buried in Leakin Park near Baltimore, Maryland, the Sun reported. Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend who was 17 at the time of her killing, was alleged to have argued with her in a car before strangling her to death. Prosecutors alleged Syed committed the murder because he couldn’t handle Lee breaking up with him.
Syed, however, has always maintained his innocence, and his attorney argued that he may not have spent 23 years in prison if prosecutors hadn’t withheld evidence.
“If that evidence had been disclosed, perhaps Adnan would not have missed his high school graduation, or his pre-med plans, or 23 years of birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, community events, and everyday moments of joy,” Suter said.

US-NEWS-SERIAL-SYED-2-BZ

Victim’s Family Wants Murder Conviction Reinstated Against Adnan Syed After He Was Released From Prison

Victim's Family Wants Murder Conviction Reinstated Against Adnan Syed After He Was Released From Prison

Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against Adnan Syed, who was convicted in 2000 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
Syed was previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/adnan-syed-subject-of-hit-serial-podcast-released-from-prison-conviction-overturned">released from prison</a> last month after his conviction was overturned, and Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was given 30 days to decide whether she would drop the charges against Syed or retry him for Lee’s murder. On Tuesday, her office dropped the charges against Syed.
“This case is over. There are no more appeals necessary,” Mosby said at a news conference, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/adnan-syed-crime-baltimore-8380beee8b6ab15102a5a45f2c59b839">according to the Associated Press</a>.
Mosby said she made her decision after DNA test results of Lee’s clothing and shoes were obtained using modern techniques that weren’t available at the time of Syed’s trial. Investigators were not able to recover usable DNA from Lee’s clothing, but DNA obtained from her shoes contained the DNA of multiple individuals – but not Syed’s.
Mosby also apologized to Lee’s family for the hurt they have felt for Syed’s wrongful conviction, which she maintained was not her administration’s fault. Still, she said, “as a representative of the institution, it is my responsibility to acknowledge and to apologize to the family of Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed.”
She added that her office would “continue to utilize every available resource to prosecute whoever is responsible for the death of Hae Min Lee.”
Syed’s attorney, Erica Suter, praised Mosby’s decision.
“Today’s the day that Adnan Syed and his loved ones have been waiting for 23 long years,” Suter said on a call with reporters, according to the AP. “The results of the DNA testing excluded Adnan and confirm what Adnan and his supporters have always known: that Adnan Syed is innocent. The state of Maryland has dropped the charges. Adnan Syed is free.”
Syed spent 23 years in prison for the 1999 murder of Lee.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn decided to overturn Syed’s murder conviction in September after the popular “Serial” podcast raised doubts about his guilt. Prosecutors had revealed there were other suspects, as well as concerns about the evidence used against him. A yearlong investigation involving prosecutors and Suter, Syed’s attorney, discovered that authorities knew of at least one alternate suspect prior to Syed’s trial but withheld the information from his defense. This, the prosecutors and Suter argued, was known as a Brady violation.
Lee was 18 years old when she was found strangled to death and buried in Leakin Park near Baltimore, Maryland, the Sun reported. Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend, who was 17 at the time of her killing, was alleged to have argued with her in a car before strangling her to death. Prosecutors alleged Syed committed the murder because he couldn’t handle Lee breaking up with him.
Syed, however, has always maintained his innocence, and his attorney argued that he may not have spent 23 years in prison if prosecutors hadn’t withheld evidence.
“If that evidence had been disclosed, perhaps Adnan would not have missed his high school graduation, or his pre-med plans, or 23 years of birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, community events and everyday moments of joy,” Suter said.

US-NEWS-SERIAL-SYED-BZ

Charges Dropped Against Adnan Syed, Subject Of Popular ‘Serial’ Podcast

While most have heard of the Central Park Five, few know that six teenage boys were actually convicted in connection to the crime.
Steven Lopez, now 48, pleaded guilty when he was just a teenager to a lesser crime of robbing a male jogger, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/07/25/steven-lopez-sixth-member-of-central-park-five-exonerated/">reported</a>. On Monday, he was officially exonerated after the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed a motion to vacate Lopez’s conviction.
“Mr. Lopez was charged and pleaded guilty in the face of false statements, unreliable forensic analysis and immense external pressure,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg told the courtroom on Monday, according to the Post.
Bragg said that after re-investigating Lopez’s case, authorities determined he had “involuntarily” pleaded guilty when he made a deal with prosecutors. The re-investigation began in March 2021, one month after Lopez requested the review.
“Unique circumstances, combined with Mr. Lopez’s youth, made his plea involuntary – and therefore unconstitutional,” Bragg said, according to the Post.
Bragg added that certain evidence used to convict Lopez, including “hair sample comparisons,” wasn’t reliable, stating that “there remains no physical evidence connecting Mr. Lopez to the charged conduct.” In addition to the unreliable evidence, witnesses who claimed Lopez had participated in the crime also recanted their statements.
Lopez was one of six black and Latino teenagers arrested in 1989 and accused of participating in the brutal rape and beating of white jogger Trisha Meili, who was 28 at the time of the crime. While Lopez pleaded guilty to a lesser charge or robbery and spent four years in prison before he was released, his five co-defendants were convicted on more serious charges of rape. They served between six and 13 years in prison before they were each exonerated in 2002.
That year, serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the attack on Meili, and insisted he acted alone. The New York Police Department and then-Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s office both said DNA evidence linked Reyes to the attack – information that could have persuaded a jury not to convict teenagers Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise (now Korey Wise), who all served prison time for the crime.
A year after they were exonerated, the five men sued New York City for $250 million for their wrongful convictions and imprisonment. It took more than a decade for the five men to collect, with a Manhattan federal judge formally signing off on a $41 million settlement in 2014. Under the agreement, Wise – who was the oldest at the time of the convictions – received $12.25 million while the other four men each would collect $7.125 million.
Lopez, meanwhile, has not received any money for his wrongful prosecution, and it is unclear if he intends to pursue compensation.

Sixth Man In 1989 Central Park Jogger Case Will Have Conviction Overturned

Sixth Member Of Central Park Five Exonerated Two Decades After Co-Defendants

New York City

It was nearly 2 a.m. on November 26, 1995, when two men poured gasoline into a subway token booth in Brooklyn before lighting it on fire. The booth exploded, severely burning 50-year-old Harry Kaufman, the clerk. He died in the hospital two weeks later.
Three teenagers – Vincent Ellerbe, James Irons, and Thomas Malik – later confessed to the crime and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/nyregion/subway-murder-false-conviction-exonerated.html">reported</a>. On Friday, the three men were exonerated in state court. Irons and Malik, each now 45, were immediately released from prison, as Ellerbe, 44, had been released on parole two years ago.
“Twenty-five years I had to look in the mirror knowing that I was in prison for something I had nothing to do with,” Ellerbe said in court, according to the Times.
“The penitentiary breaks you or turns you into a monster,” he added, “and I had to become something I’m not just to survive.”
When the three men were questioned, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in <a href="http://www.brooklynda.org/2022/07/15/brooklyn-district-attorney-moves-to-vacate-unjust-convictions-ofthree-defendants-who-confessed-as-teenagers-to-horrific-murder-ofclerk-whose-token-booth-was-set-on-fire-and-exploded/">a press release</a>, they were coerced into confessing to the crime. When the DA’s office reinvestigated the case more than 25 years after the three men were convicted, they discovered contradictions between the confessions and the evidence found at the scene, as well as contradictions between the confessions themselves.
The reinvestigation found that the lead detectives on the case, Stephen Chmil and Louis Scarcella, fed Irons key details about the case, including photographs of crime scene evidence and describing or showing him a photo of the gasoline container. The details were then used against Irons during his trial to show that he had provided a detailed confession of the crime.
Other details in Irons’ confession were false, such as his claim to have doused the token booth door with gasoline – a fact negated by expert testimony during one of Irons’ co-defendant’s trials.
For Malik, a witness identified him as the person she saw holding the gasoline bottle, even though she had previously identified a different man, who at the time was detectives’ top suspect. That man was never charged. The jury was not allowed to hear about this witness’ numerous contradictory statements, regarding the identification and other details that undermined her credibility.
Ellerbe’s confession contradicted evidence, claiming he used the gasoline bottle to write his street name on the outside of the token booth, even though a fire marshal testified that gasoline had only been poured into the coin slot.
“The horrific murder of Harry Kaufman shocked our city and devastated a loving family, but the findings of an exhaustive, years long reinvestigation of this case leave us unable to stand by the convictions of those charged. Above all, my obligation is to do justice, and because of the serious problems with the evidence on which these convictions are based, we must move to vacate them and acknowledge the harm done to these men by this failure of our system,” DA Gonzalez said in a statement. “My heart aches for the Kaufman family and my office remains resolute in our commitment to seek justice for victims, while ensuring fairness to all.”
Kaufman’s son, Adrian, told the Times on Friday that he didn’t expect justice following the exonerations.
“If they didn’t do it, who did?” he told the Times, adding that he didn’t think police would charge anyone else for the murder. “I don’t think there will be justice brought for his family.”

Brooklyn DA to Review 50 Homicide Cases From One Detective

They Spent Decades In Prison For Setting A Subway Token Booth On Fire, Killing The Clerk. They Were Just Exonerated.

Three Men Convicted Of Setting A Subway Token Booth On Fire, Killing Clerk, Were Just Exonerated.

Edward Clayton Taylor spent 33 years in prison and 36 years believed to be a child rapist after he was convicted of raping 4-year-old Stephanie McIntyre Love in 1986.
Taylor, now 57, always maintained his innocent, even pointing out that at the time he had a 4-year-old daughter and would never do such a thing. His innocence didn’t matter, and he was convicted of child rape. The Florida parole board granted him in 2019, but a judge on Friday vacated his conviction, finally removing him from Florida’s sex offender registry.
“I want to relax. I want to breathe air as a free man,” Taylor told reporters after his conviction was overturned.
Love’s rape was only discovered after she told her mother that “her butt was sore,” and a doctor examination determined she had gonorrhea.
At the time of the investigation, 4-year-old Love told investigators that her friend’s father, whom she referred to as “Jermaine’s Daddy” was the man who raped her, but she also said Jermaine had either “two daddies” or “three daddies.” One of the men she incorrectly referred to was Taylor, who at the time was living with his mother and two brothers, all of whom were around the same age and looked similar.
The Florida Times-Union <a href="https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/courts/2022/05/20/jacksonville-man-absolved-he-deemed-child-rapist-decades/9847029002/">reported</a> in other interviews, Love said the man who raped her was her friend’s “daddy” who was a neighbor. That friend’s father was Taylor, but he testified that his 18-year old uncle had “played house” with Love on his bunkbed. His testimony was not allowed at trial, First Coast News <a href="https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/crime/jacksonville-man-edward-clayton-taylor-exonerated-in-1986-child-rape-case/77-29cb86bc-aeab-474a-982f-995e28ad22c7">reported</a>.
Love, who is white, was brought in and shown numerous photos of black men, including a photo of Taylor and one of his brothers, but not the other. As First Coast News reported, Taylor fell victim to “the (now well-documented) pitfalls of cross-racial eyewitness identification.” When Love was shown the photos, she told investigators that the men in the photos “all look the same to me. I can’t tell the difference between these men.”
Love’s identification was the only evidence used to convict Taylor. Love spoke on Taylor’s behalf at the hearing on Friday, saying she knows he didn’t rape her. She had also written a statement to the Florida Parole Commission and twice testified in support of releasing Taylor from prison.
“I was four years old, unsure and scared when I identified Edward Taylor,” she wrote in her statement to the parole board. “I felt very pressured by detectives and [others] to identify the perpetrator&#8217;s photo in the photo array that was shown to me.”
Medical records showed Taylor had never had gonorrhea, but his younger brother did. First Coast News reported that the younger brother, identified as Ithemas by the Times-Union, had been diagnosed with the venereal disease. Ithemas’ photo had not been included in the photos shown to Love. Ithemas, according to First Coast News, was “later arrested for sexually molesting four young girls in Brunswick, Ga. in a similar fashion. (He was not prosecuted in that case, but is currently serving a life sentence for armed robbery).”
Attorneys for the Innocence Project of Florida worked on overturning Taylor’s conviction, and were able to provide new evidence and show that prosecutors failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.

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