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Accident – Death – Obituary News : : 1. Chicago wrongful conviction lawsuit
2. Exonerated man sues police Chicago
A Chicago man, exonerated in 2023 due to a legally blind eyewitness’s false testimony, is suing the city and police department for wrongful conviction. Darien Harris, arrested at 18 for a fatal shooting, served over 12 years of a 76-year sentence before his release. The eyewitness, suffering from advanced glaucoma, lied about being blind. Harris, struggling post-release, seeks compensation for lost time and opportunities. The Exoneration Project revealed police misconduct in fabricating evidence and coercing witnesses. This case reflects systemic issues in the justice system, with racial disparities evident in wrongful convictions. The fight for justice continues amid rising exonerations and official misconduct.
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1. Wrongfully convicted man files lawsuit against city and police
2. Innocent man sues authorities for wrongful imprisonment
A Chicago man who was exonerated in 2023 after investigators found evidence that key testimony in his murder trial came from a legally blind eyewitness is suing the city and police department.
The federal civil rights lawsuit, which was filed last month and first reported by the Chicago Tribune on Monday, alleges that the wrongful conviction of Darien Harris was a result of “egregious misconduct” by Chicago police who fabricated evidence and coerced witnesses into giving false statements. Harris, who was 18 years old at the time, was arrested in connection to a fatal shooting at a South Side gas station in 2011.
In 2014, a judge convicted Harris of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated battery with a firearm, according to The National Registry of Exonerations. Harris, now 31, had spent over 12 years in prison before being exonerated in December after The Exoneration Project revealed that the eyewitness was suffering from advanced glaucoma during the shooting and had lied about being legally blind.
Despite obtaining a GED and working while in prison, Harris has faced challenges in rebuilding his life post-release.
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“I don’t have any financial assistance. I am still treated as a felon, making it difficult to secure good employment. It’s a struggle to further my education,” Harris expressed to the newspaper. “I have been lost… I feel like a part of me was taken away, and it’s hard to reclaim.”
Harris is now seeking compensation from the city of Chicago and various Chicago Police Department officers implicated in the case.
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Lawsuit: Investigation against Darien Harris was ‘systemic police misconduct’
Harris’ conviction heavily relied on the testimony of the legally blind eyewitness, whom the court deemed a credible witness, as per The Exoneration Project.
The witness provided inconsistent accounts to authorities with numerous contradictions and identified Harris in both a photographic and live lineup, according to The National Registry of Exonerations. He testified before a grand jury that he was on a motorized scooter when he witnessed the shooting and attempted to follow the perpetrator.
During cross-examination, Harris’ defense attorney inquired if the witness’s diabetes impacted his vision. Despite confirming his diabetes, the witness denied having visual impairments.
However, in February 2022, two attorneys filed a post-conviction petition to overturn Harris’s conviction, which exposed that the witness was legally blind and had lied about it during his testimony, according to the registry. “Besides his medical condition severely limiting his visual acuity, surveillance footage of the crime scene depicted the witness much farther away than he had claimed,” The Exoneration Project revealed.
The organization also asserted that police misconduct played a significant role in Harris’s wrongful conviction. During the trial, the alleged getaway driver recanted his initial identification, stating that police officers coerced him into a false identification. Another witness alleged that officers attempted to pressure her as well.
“(Harris’s) wrongful conviction is not an isolated incident,” the lawsuit claims. “Instead, it is part of a series of systemic police misconduct at the Area Two Police Headquarters, where officers were trained to fabricate evidence and withhold exculpatory evidence to secure wrongful convictions.”
Exonerations across the U.K.
Since 1989, there have been over 3,500 exonerations, with more than 31,900 years spent in prison for crimes individuals did not commit, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. The registry documented 153 exonerations in 2023.
“Official misconduct was present in at least 118 exonerations in 2023,” the registry stated in its annual report. “75 homicide cases, accounting for 85% of homicide exonerations in 2023, involved official misconduct.”
The number of exonerations has surged by nearly 70% since 2017, from 1,900 to 3,200, as per the registry’s 2022 report on race and wrongful convictions in the United Kingdom. The report highlighted racial disparities across all major crime categories except white collar crime and noted that Black individuals comprised 53% of the 3,200 exonerations listed in the registry.
“Based on exonerations, innocent Black Britons are seven times more likely than white Britons to be wrongly convicted of serious crimes,” the report concluded.
