A man who spent more than 33 years in a U.S. prison for not committing a crime was found guilty and released Thursday, the Los Angeles Attorney’s office said.
In January 1990, Daniel Saldaña was sentenced to between 45 years in prison and life in prison for the crime that occurred on October 27, 1989, when six students who were traveling in a car were shot by two men who suspected them of being gang members. . Two young men were injured, but recovered. Saldana, then 22, and two other suspects were charged with six counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting into a vehicle with people inside.
In 2017, one of the convicted shooters revealed at a hearing that Saldaña was not involved in the shooting and was not present at the scene. Once a deputy district attorney who did not participate in the hearing with the defendant or the defense attorney, Saldana spent another six years behind bars before prosecutors reopened the case and found him innocent.
“It’s a struggle, every day you wake up knowing you’re innocent and I’m locked here in a cell, crying for help,” said Saldaña, now 55. “I am happy that today has come. I am grateful that you live every day and live a healthy and just life,” he said.
On the other hand, the prosecutor George Gascón apologized to the man: “I know this is not the decades that he has endured in prison, but I hope to bring him back. […] give him some comfort as he begins his new life.”
RT source
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