Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford, two US men wronged by the judicial system have been finally given their due. Having served nearly 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of attempted murder, the two men were declared innocent by a California judge earlier this week.
Under a new state law, the two men are to receive $140 for every day they spent behind bars, or about $900,000. The state Victims Compensation Board is likely to approve the new compensation while the attorneys of the victims plan on suing the state, county and district attorney’s office for wrongful prosecution.
“I thought about this day for so long. I thought about it when I was locked up for 17 years. I thought about it for my last two years being free. I waited for this day because, you know, I knew I was innocent of every crime they said I committed,” Rayford said after the ruling.
“I’m not big for words. But today is a wonderful day. For 20 years we’ve been living this nightmare. It’s finally over. We can go on with our lives,” added Glass.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke, in a long, detailed ruling set the two defendants innocent and concluded the trial which began in October last year. The two men were set free following a state appeals court panel decision to vacate their convictions.
During the hearing, in a dramatic turn of events, the actual shooter, Chad Brandon McZeal, a gang member, who is already serving life imprisonment in an unrelated case, confessed to the crime.
Teenagers when arrested
Glass and Rayford were 17 and 18 respectively when they were arrested after an altercation turned into a shooting involving a group of teenagers in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. In the kerfuffle, two people were struck by bullets but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, according to court filings.
However, both were arrested and convicted of 11 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to a harsh punishment of 11 consecutive life sentences.
The two men were convicted, primarily on the testimony of just two witnesses who later recanted their stories. From the beginning, Glass and Rayford maintained their innocence and said they were not involved in the shooting in any capacity.
Innocence Rights project at the University of California, Irvine School of Law picked their case and managed to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the two were not responsible for the shooting.
Notably, this is not the first time that individuals have been dealt the wrong card by the US judicial system. Last year, 69-year-old Maurice Hastings was released from a California prison having spent 38 years for a 1983 murder and two attempted murders, which, he, in fact, never committed.
(With inputs from agencies)
