An innocent Chicago man who spent 12 years behind bars for murder has had his conviction overturned after it emerged that the key eyewitness was legally blind. Darien Harris, 30, was convicted in 2011 of the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Rondell Moore, per the Chicago Tribune, but he has always maintained his innocence. Now, he’s finally free.
Darien Harris’ conviction was overturned.
On December 5, Cook County Judge Diana Kenworthy vacated Harris’ conviction, saying it’s better to “start over,” the Exoneration Project said.
“Mr. Harris has spent 12 years wrongfully imprisoned, having been arrested when he was just 18,” the organization said in a Facebook statement.
“His conviction was secured almost solely through the testimony of a blind eyewitness, who the court repeatedly referred to as credible when wrongfully convicting Mr. Harris. We look forward to continuing to fight for his freedom.”
The eyewitness never should have been used.
The one eyewitness whose testimony was instrumental in securing a conviction against Harris was said to have been facing advanced glaucoma at the time of the crime. As a result, his vision was severely limited.
It was also revealed that the witness was much further away from the scene of the crime than he claimed to be during the trial in 2011, making his testimony unreliable at best and downright lies at worst.
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It’s good that Harris is out, but the justice system must do better.
The sad fact is that Darien Harris is not an anomaly. So many prosecutors are so desperate to win cases that they’ll put together the shoddiest “evidence” — or even make it up from scratch – to do so, ruining the lives of innocent people in the process.
The justice system must become more robust so that this stops happening, especially to people of color. Nevertheless, the prosecution plans to retry Darien Harris, though it’s unclear if they will still be seeking murder charges.
His mother, Nakesha Harris, told People via her attorney that she’s “concerned about the integrity” of the case if it goes back to trial, saying that a vacated conviction meant “my son should have been coming home.”
