PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Harris' defense team also has said police misconduct played a role in Harris' conviction. Myserscough-Mueller claimed that police intimidated another witness in the case. She said the driver who supposedly dropped off Harris at the gas station initially identified him as the gunman, but recanted at trial, accusing police of threatening his newborn baby. That witness later said he never saw Harris. The only video from the murder shows a shooter, who is hard to make out, get dropped off in a car, run across the scene and then fire shots off camera. Chicago police arrived to find a man fatally wounded, and Saffold was the main witness. Saffold picked Harris out of a lineup. The high school senior, who had no criminal record, soon found himself charged and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 76 years in prison, just a few weeks shy of graduation."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "After Harris was convicted, his lawyers discovered unrelated federal disability lawsuit filed by Saffold years earlier in 2003 in which two separate doctors attested to the fact that Saffold is legally blind and had been for a least a decade before the shooting. That fact never came up during Harris' trial. "They didn't do anything wrong because they didn't know. I didn't have to tell nobody about my medical history," Saffold said in 2019. Saffold spoke to CBS 2 under the condition that his face be hidden. He said he stands by his testimony that he saw Darien Harris pull the trigger. When asked if he is legally blind he responded, "I got glaucoma due to an eye disease." He confirmed the medical records obtained by CBS 2 were authentic."
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STORY: "Darien Harris is exonerated of murder conviction based on testimony of blind witness," CBS Chicago (Reporters Marissa Perlman and Megan Hickey) reports, on December 18 2023.
GIST: "A Chicago man who has been in prison for 12 years was cleared of murder charges on Tuesday and will be released from jail.
Darien Harris was convicted largely on the testimony of a witness who turned out to be legally blind, and earlier this month a judge vacated his conviction, but Cook County prosecutors said they planned to retry him.
He was then transferred from a downstate prison to Cook County Jail to await that trial.
However, on Tuesday morning, after reviewing the case against Harris, prosecutors agreed to drop all charges, meaning Harris will go free in a matter of hours.
"This is the best Christmas gift ever," said his mother, Nakesha Harris. "I feel like I'm dreaming. It doesn't feel real. I guess once I hold him in my arms, it'll be real."
Darien Harris' attorney, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, said they were "thrilled" that prosecutors agreed to drop charges after reviewing the case over the past couple weeks.
Myerscough-Mueller said Harris now plans to go to law school so he can help others who have been wrongfully convicted clear their names.
"He has had to grow up largely in prison, but he has remained so positive. He is such an inspiration to so many," she said.
Harris, now 30, was only 18 when he was arrested for the 2011 murder of Rondell Moore at a gas station at 66th and Stony Island. He was convicted at a bench trial in 2014, and was sentenced to 76 years in prison.
Harris' lawyers said the prosecution's star witness, Dexter Saffold, was legally blind, a fact they were not aware of at his trial. They said Saffold lied about his vision at trial.
"Justice is supposed to be blind. The eyewitness is not supposed to be blind," attorney Lauren Myerscough-Mueller said. "That is not how you are supposed to convict someone. That is not how the justice system is supposed to work."
CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey spoke to Harris from jail last week.
"Look at the symbol of justice. It's a blindfold with the scale tipped in favor," he said. "That's how we come into the system as Black men. We come into the system blind – not knowing the law, not knowing nothing."
Harris' defense team also has said police misconduct played a role in Harris' conviction.
Myserscough-Mueller claimed that police intimidated another witness in the case.
She said the driver who supposedly dropped off Harris at the gas station initially identified him as the gunman, but recanted at trial, accusing police of threatening his newborn baby.
That witness later said he never saw Harris.
The only video from the murder shows a shooter, who is hard to make out, get dropped off in a car, run across the scene and then fire shots off camera.
Chicago police arrived to find a man fatally wounded, and Saffold was the main witness.
Saffold picked Harris out of a lineup.
The high school senior, who had no criminal record, soon found himself charged and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 76 years in prison, just a few weeks shy of graduation.
After Harris was convicted, his lawyers discovered unrelated federal disability lawsuit filed by Saffold years earlier in 2003 in which two separate doctors attested to the fact that Saffold is legally blind and had been for a least a decade before the shooting.
That fact never came up during Harris' trial.
"They didn't do anything wrong because they didn't know. I didn't have to tell nobody about my medical history," Saffold said in 2019.
Saffold spoke to CBS 2 under the condition that his face be hidden. He said he stands by his testimony that he saw Darien Harris pull the trigger.
When asked if he is legally blind he responded, "I got glaucoma due to an eye disease."
He confirmed the medical records obtained by CBS 2 were authentic.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-123488014
