Cleared of a DNA test after 38 years in prison in California for a murder he did not commit. Maurice Hastings, who has always proclaimed his innocence, was released at 69. He had been charged with the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer, and two attempted murders. The sentence was handed down in 1988 but Los Angeles County District Judge George Gascón overturned it on October 20.
“What happened in Hastings is a terrible injustice,” Gascon said. “I have prayed for many years for this day to come. At the moment there is no bitterness in me, now I just want to enjoy what is left of my life, ”said Hastings instead, in a press conference after his release. He had requested the DNA test in 2000, but at first this request was denied. Last June, it emerged that the DNA recovered at the crime scene matches that of a man who died in 2020 while serving a sentence for kidnapping and rape.
The murder of Roberta Wydermyer
The victim had been sexually assaulted and then killed with a single gunshot to the head. Her body was found in 1983 in the trunk of her vehicle in a Los Angeles suburb. Hastings was accused of the murder, but has always professed innocence. The prosecution asked for the death penalty for him, but then he was sentenced to life in prison. At the time of the autopsy, traces of semen had been found on the body: Hastings had asked for a DNA test in 2000. This request, however, was rejected by the district attorney.
In June of this year, however, he managed to obtain the test, which showed that the DNA profile corresponded to another man, already convicted of the kidnapping of another woman – she too found in the trunk of a ‘car – and who had died in prison in 2020.
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