Modern DNA analyzes have exonerated a Hawaiian who was innocently imprisoned for 23 years. While he is being released, a search will be carried out to find the real culprit.
Hilo – After 23 years behind bars, a man in Hawaii has been declared innocent and released. New evidence in a murder case against him and two co-defendants turned the case around. Now the search is on for “unknown man no. 1”, according to the Hawaiian newspaper Star Advertiser reported.
Hawaii: Not guilty in prison – man released after 23 years
Judge Peter Kubota overturned the life sentence against the now 51-year-old. He was behind bars for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 23-year-old US tourist. Now he and a co-accused are free, the third accused has already died, according to the newspaper.
Earlier, the judge in Hilo County Court on the Big Island had spent more than seven hours hearing testimonies from a DNA lab analyst and some forensic tire and bite mark experts, according to the article. They explained that not a single piece of evidence connected the man or his two alleged and also convicted accomplices with the crime.
Man released in Hawaii after 23 years in prison – DNA traces point to unknown persons
The DNA traces and sperm found on a T-shirt with the victim’s blood, among other things, belonged to an “unknown man” instead, as the newspaper continues. DNA analysis technology has made significant advances since then, the judge said. However, “public pressure” would have led to the conviction in Hawaii, where a volcano is currently active again.
Susan Friedman, an attorney from Innocence Project, however, sharply criticized what she believed to be the hasty conviction of the defendants at the time: “From the beginning, the DNA in this case provided strong evidence that these three men are innocent”. While in the newspaper Star Advertiser 23 years imprisonment is mentioned, but the project speaks of 25 years – possibly including pre-trial detention.
That too Innocence Project notes on his website that shortly after the crime, an extremely high level of media coverage led to the authorities urging the case to be concluded as quickly as possible. Finally, one had relied on a testimony of a prisoner who had made a false statement.
Video: Innocent in prison? New Bathtub Murder Trial
Hawaii: Man 23 years in prison – according to judge he should not “focus on anger and resentment”.
The project is now calling for support for the dismissed person to start the process again. The aim is also to investigate miscarriages of justice and injustices in the courtroom as a matter of principle.
The judge, meanwhile, urges the freedman to “squeeze and love” his family and not focus on anger and resentment at the trial or the people who would have put him in prison for a third of his life. In Norway, too, a man was wrongly imprisoned for 21 years because of a miscarriage of justice. (dpa/mef)
#Hawaii #guilty #prison #man #released #years