US: After 31 years in jail, a person is freed over ‘mistaken identification’

Prosecutors stated it seemed to be a “chance coincidence.”

After two males entered an condominium within the Coconut Grove part of Miami on Jan. 17, 1990, and considered one of them fatally shot a person throughout a theft, witnesses and tipsters stated the gunman was named Thomas James or Tommy James.

That led police to place a photograph of Thomas Raynard James in a lineup, setting in movement a case of mistaken identification that led James, then 23, to be convicted of first-degree homicide and armed theft Jan. 11, 1991. He was sentenced to life in jail.

But James by no means gave up making an attempt to show his innocence. He investigated his case whereas in jail, and his mom, Doris Strong, knocked on doorways, in search of solutions, based on James’ lawyer, Natlie G. Figgers.

On Wednesday, their efforts have been lastly validated when a choose accepted a movement by prosecutors to vacate James’ conviction and sentence, setting him free after he had spent greater than half of his life — over 31 years — in jail.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office stated an investigation that it carried out in cooperation with Figgers decided that not solely did cheap doubt exist within the conviction, but additionally that “Thomas Raynard James is actually innocent of the charges.”

“In brief, what appears to be a chance coincidence that the defendant, Thomas Raynard James, had the same name as a suspect named by witnesses and anonymous tipsters as ‘Thomas James,’ or ‘Tommy James’” led to his “mistaken identification” because the gunman who fatally shot Francis McKinnon, prosecutors wrote in courtroom papers asking for the conviction to be thrown out.

Just earlier than he was launched Wednesday, James, 55, nonetheless handcuffed and wearing a pink jail uniform, appeared at a information convention together with his mom and prosecutors. He didn’t converse, however Figgers stated he was “eager to start his life” and hoped to start out a nonprofit to assist others who’ve been wrongfully convicted.

Figgers credited Tristram Korten, whose investigation of James’ conviction was printed in GQ in July 2021, with serving to to deliver the case to the eye of prosecutors after years of unsuccessful efforts by James and his household.

“He was always hopeful that one day someone would see the truth and the facts and would come to his defense,” Figgers stated. “As of today, he’s grateful that people listened to his cries, and he’s just grateful to have the opportunity to live his life.”

Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state lawyer, stated the case pointed to the vulnerability of eyewitness identification. James’ conviction rested totally on the testimony of Dorothy Walton, McKinnon’s stepdaughter, who had been within the condominium and had recognized James because the gunman after police put his photograph in a lineup.

“I’m positive of it,” she testified throughout the trial, based on courtroom papers. “I will never forget his face. I will never forget his eyes.”

No bodily proof tied James or anybody else to the crime, prosecutors stated.

Over the years, Walton started to waver in her certainty about James, prosecutors stated. Although reluctant to rehash the case and fearful that James may take revenge on her if he have been launched, she finally “voiced concerns that maybe she had made a mistake” and stated she “wouldn’t want to go to her grave with the possibility that she may have made a mistake,” courtroom papers stated. She informed investigators that, as a “good Christian woman,” she would pray on it.

On April 12, after prosecutors subpoenaed her to testify below oath, Walton informed investigators that she “now believes she made a mistake” in her identification of James and that she didn’t attribute her change to any “outside influence,” prosecutors stated.

Fernandez Rundle known as it “an unfortunate mistaken identity case.”

“Around the country, eyewitness testimony, absent any forensic evidence, is always vulnerable,” she stated.

Fernandez Rundle added {that a} totally different man named Tommy James informed investigators that he had been eyeing McKinnon’s condominium together with his cousin, Vincent Williams, for a potential theft within the days earlier than the homicide.

That Tommy James, nonetheless, was behind bars when McKinnon was killed, she stated. Williams later informed Tommy James that he and one other man had dedicated the theft and homicide. Williams has since died. The different man has denied any involvement.

While Fernandez Rundle known as James’ launch from jail a “joyous” event for his household, she stated it was irritating for McKinnon’s family members “because what they believed was a just result for the loss of their loved one has been stolen from them.”

“We believe one of the two men who did this will never be held accountable for the loss of their loved one,” Fernandez Rundle stated, referring to Williams. “The second, we’re just not sure. We will continue to look at it as a cold case.”

This article initially appeared in The New York Times.