California man who's spent 25 years in prison for murder he didn't commit has conviction overturned

CHRISTOPHER WEBER
Updated Thu, November 9, 2023 

In this image from a remote hearing provided by the Northern California Innocence Project is Miguel Solorio on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. Solorio who has spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was exonerated and ordered released by a judge on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, after prosecutors agreed he had been wrongly convicted. (Northern California Innocence Project via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man who has spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was exonerated and ordered released by a judge on Thursday after prosecutors agreed he had been wrongly convicted.

Miguel Solorio, 44, was arrested in 1998 for a fatal drive-by shooting in Whittier, southeast of Los Angeles, and eventually sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Superior Court Judge William Ryan overturned Solorio's conviction during a Los Angeles court hearing that Solorio attended remotely.


When the hearing concluded, Solorio thanked his attorneys with the Northern California Innocence Project, calling them his “dream team.”

“It’s like a dream I don’t want to wake up from,” he said. “This day finally came.”

The attorneys who petitioned for Solorio's release argued that his conviction was based on faulty eyewitness identification practices.

In a letter last month, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said it had “confidently and definitively” concluded that Solorio is entitled to be released.

His attorneys said the case against Solorio relied heavily on a now-debunked method of identifying a suspect that results in contaminating the witnesses’ memory by repeatedly showing photos of the same person over and over.

In Solorio’s case, before it was in the news four eyewitnesses shown his photo did not identify him as the suspect, and some even pointed to a different person. But rather than pursue other leads, law enforcement continued to present the witnesses with photos of Solorio until some of them eventually identified him, his lawyers said.

“This case is a tragic example of what happens when law enforcement officials develop tunnel vision in their pursuit of a suspect,” said Sarah Pace, an attorney with the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University School of Law. “Once a witness mentioned Solorio’s name, law enforcement officers zeroed in on only him, disregarding other evidence and possible suspects, and putting their own judgment about guilt or innocence above the facts."

The district attorney's letter noted that “new documentable scientific consensus emerged in 2020 that a witness’s memory for a suspect should be tested only once, as even the test itself contaminates the witness’s memory.”

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has up to five days to process Solorio's release from Mule Creek State Prison southeast of Sacramento.

Man cleared of sexually assaulting child after 35 years in prison

Sky News
Updated Fri, 10 November 2023 



A man who spent 35 years behind bars in the US after being wrongly convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl has been freed from prison thanks to a DNA breakthrough.

Louis Wright, now aged 65, had lived near the child's home in Albion, Michigan, at the time of the attack in 1988 and an off-duty officer reported seeing him about five hours before the incident.

That year, Mr Wright was sentenced to 25-50 years for various sexual assault charges, and 6-15 years for breaking and entering.


Earlier this year, however, the Michigan Department of the Attorney General's Conviction Integrity Unit was told that items from the case were found by the Albion Department of Public Safety.

The items were sent for testing and came back with "foreign male DNA".

As a result of this, Mr Wright was excluded as the perpetrator, resulting in his charges being set aside, officials said.

On 18 January 1988, a perpetrator broke into the girl's home while she was asleep and forced her into the living room where he assaulted her.

Later that day, Mr Wright voluntarily went to the local police department.

Officers said he confessed, though the interview was not recorded and he did not sign a confession, according to the Cooley Law School Innocence Project which represents Mr Wright.

But the girl was never asked to take part in any identification process, or identify anyone in court.

Mr Wright pleaded no contest to the charges - which is treated as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

He then tried to withdraw his plea and claimed he was innocent.

Over decades in prison, Mr Wright has consistently maintained his innocence and it is unclear why he pleaded no contest in the first place.

Prosecutor David Gilbert said the case is being reopened.

"There is no justice without truth. It applies to everyone," he said.

Mr Wright could be eligible for a $1.75m (£1.43m) payout under a state law that grants $50,000 (£40,900) for each year spent in prison for a conviction overturned based on new evidence.