A Black man in Chicago had his conviction overturned after being imprisoned at just 18 years old for a crime he claims he didn’t commit. The decision was made after finding an eyewitness who identified him without being able to see him.
Deadass, he was legally blind.
Darien Harris, now 30, was convicted in the shooting of a 23-year-old man and the injury of another in 2011, per The Chicago Tribune. His verdict was heavily based on the testimony of an eyewitness, Dexter Saffold. Saffold testified that he saw the shooting from less than 20 feet away while riding his motorized scooter, The Chicago Sun-Times reported. He also claimed the shooter bumped into his scooter while fleeing the scene. Saffold identified Harris as the suspect but his own court documents revealed he lived with vision problems, as stated by The Exoneration Project.
The organization said in a statement that Saffold suffered from advanced glaucoma—which is basically looking at life through a tight, blurry camera lens. In addition to that, the surveillance video of the incident shows the witness was farther from the scene of the crime than he claimed, the organization said.
However, at the time, the judge believed the witness and Harris was sent to prison.
After applying some pressure with the help of his family, Harris was able to get the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to take another look at his case and who else was behind his conviction.
Read more from NBC News:
Several years ago, Harris’ family and legal team had urged Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to look at the case, arguing that the witness had allegedly failed to disclose that he was legally blind, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The Exoneration Project said there were also issues with “police misconduct” during Harris’ case. The organization said that during the trial, the alleged getaway driver in the shooting “unequivocally recanted” his initial statements identifying Harris and alleged that police coerced him into making a false identification by threatening to send him to jail for the rest of his life.
Harris served 12 years of the 76-year prison sentence he was given by a now-retired judge. The report says he must remain in jail while awaiting a new trial because of the severity of the crime.
Harris’ next court date is Dec. 19.