Felony Justice
Homicide conviction overturned as a result of eyewitness was legally blind
Decide Diana Kenworthy of Cook dinner County, Illinois, speaks throughout a sentencing listening to on the George N. Leighton Felony Courtroom Constructing in Chicago in July 2021. Photograph by Jose M. Osorio/The Chicago Tribune by way of the Related Press.
A choose in Chicago overturned a homicide conviction Tuesday after protection legal professionals produced proof that an eyewitness who testified in the course of the 2014 trial was legally blind.
Decide Diana Kenworthy of Cook dinner County, Illinois, overturned the conviction of Darien Harris, who was 18 when he was accused in a 2011 gasoline station capturing that killed one man and wounded one other.
The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times have protection.
An Injustice Watch investigation reported in 2019 that witness Dexter Saffold had been declared legally blind in 2002 due to his glaucoma. Throughout Harris’ trial, Saffold mentioned he was driving his motorized scooter dwelling from a fast-food restaurant when he heard gunshots and noticed the shooter, who ran into Saffold as he ran away. He recognized Harris in a lineup and at trial.
Harris was convicted and sentenced to 76 years in jail. On Tuesday, prosecutors agreed that Harris’ conviction needs to be vacated however mentioned they deliberate to attempt him once more.
Prosecutors mentioned there was one other witness, a person who mentioned he drove Harris to the gasoline station earlier than the capturing. The person later recanted, saying police had pressured him to determine Harris. The witness is now not alive.
A 3rd witness, a clerk at a gasoline station, has mentioned he acknowledged the shooter, and it wasn’t Harris, in line with protection legal professionals. The clerk was not known as as a witness on the trial.
The precise shooter, in line with Harris’ legal professionals, could have been an adolescent who later died in one other gasoline station capturing.
Harris is represented by Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, an legal professional with the Exoneration Mission on the College of Chicago Regulation College.
Kenworthy refused to launch Harris as he awaits a brand new trial.
