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A Florida man who spent the previous 34 years behind bars walked out of court docket in Fort Lauderdale a free man on Monday after he was exonerated.
Sidney Holmes, 57, was sentenced to 400 years in jail in 1988 following an armed theft within the state’s Broward County. He was launched this week after the state’s Conviction Assessment Unit (CRU), together with the Innocence Challenge of Florida, reinvestigated his conviction.
In response to a launch from Broward State Legal professional Harold F. Pryor, Holmes was arrested on Oct. 6, 1988, convicted after a jury trial in April 1989 and sentenced the next month. He was convicted of being the motive force for 2 unidentified males who robbed a person and lady at gunpoint outdoors a comfort retailer. The 2 unidentified males stole the male sufferer’s automobile.
Holmes contacted the CRU again in November 2020 claiming he was harmless of the crime, prompting the overview of this case.
“There is no such thing as a proof tying Mr. Holmes to the theft apart from a flawed identification,” Arielle Demby Berger, the assistant state legal professional answerable for the CRU, informed reporters on Monday, in response to the Miami Herald.
The identification of Holmes was doubtless a misidentification partly as a result of photograph and stay lineup practices generally utilized by legislation enforcement on the time, in response to the CRU’s findings.
Pryor, the CRU and an impartial overview panel every independently concluded that the data they reviewed offered a “affordable doubt” as to Holmes’s guilt, and that the State Legal professional’s Workplace wouldn’t cost him right now primarily based on these info.
Circuit Courtroom Choose Edward Merrigan signed a launch order for Holmes on Monday.
“I am unable to put it into phrases,” Holmes informed ABC affiliate WPLG following his launch. “It is overwhelming.”
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