Thomas Raynard James, 55, was released Wednesday after a Miami-Dade judge annulled the life sentence imposed on him in 1991 after the request made in this regard by the office of the state prosecutor of this county.
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Shortly before the judge’s decision, the state attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, Katherine Fernández Rundle, announced at a press conference that she would request an annulment of the trial because it was a case of “mistaken identity.”
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“We are going to undo what is the wrongful conviction of an innocent man. Today we are undoing an injustice, which was an unintentional mistake. We are going to ask the court, our court of law, to give Mr. James the freedom he he deserves,” said the prosecutor, accompanied by James — at that time still in his prison uniform and handcuffed — and his relatives.
Let’s undo what is the wrongful conviction of an innocent man. Today we are undoing an injustice, which was an unintentional mistake
“The world,” James replied – no longer in the red uniform and dressed in civilian clothes – to reporters who asked him what was next now that he was a free man upon his departure from the prosecutor’s office, according to the Miami Herald newspaper. .
For James, this was the end of a long road of rejected appeals and media interviews in which he defended that he was not the murderer of Francis McKinnon.
Fernandez Rundle’s announcement comes after his office reopened this case last year and concluded that James, now 55, of whom 32 were spent in prison, was not the one who killed McKinnon during a home invasion in South Miami in January 1990.
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Throughout the judicial process there was not a single physical evidence that would incriminate James and the conviction that would lead to life imprisonment was based mainly on a key witness, Dorothy Walton, the victim’s stepdaughter, who was present during the event and who identified the man from a group of photos presented to him by agents.
The woman, however, corrected herself over the years and, as she told the local channel NBC 6, pointed out that the author of the fatal shot was not James.
The man, then 23, had been arrested shortly after the murder for another incident unrelated to the case and while in custody was charged with McKinnon’s murder.
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On the day of the events, a couple of men entered the house in Coral Gables where Francis McKinnon and Ethra McKinnon lived and pointed guns at the occupants. When McKinnon, a Vietnam War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was in a room at the time, He heard noises and went out armed to confront the intruders, but one of the assailants fired first and ended his life, after which they fled the scene.
According to the police report, the officers received clues about a certain Thomas “Dog Williams” James, a resident of the Coconut Grove neighborhood, as a suspect in the crime.
The Police arrested Thomas Raynard James, although later during the investigation no correspondence was found between his fingerprints and those found in the house.
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The detainee always defended his innocence and pointed out that it was a case of “mistaken identity”. In court, McKinnon’s relatives today were not satisfied with the judge’s decision, as reported by local media.
HAPPENING NOW: Press Conference announcing the vacating of the judgment & sentence of Thomas Raynard James, convicted in 1990 of First Degree Murder in the homicide of Francis McKinnon. At the same time, our thoughts & prayers are with Mr. McKinnon’s family & loved ones. pic.twitter.com/hJcKx6yPNn
— Kathy Rundle (@KathyFndzRundle) April 27, 2022
EFE
#man #released #years #jail