A US man has been cleared of murder charges after it was discovered his conviction relied on testimony from an eyewitness who was legally blind.
Darien Harris spent 12 years in jail after being convicted for the 2011 murder of Rondell Moore at a Chicago petrol station in 2011. He was 18 when he was arrested and sentenced to 76 years in prison.
Now 30, Harris walked free yesterday and said it was the happiest moment of his life.
"These 12 and ½ years of being gone, it wasn't easy at all," he told reporters. "But I fought, and now I'm here."
"It doesn't even feel real right now, but I made it."
The only video evidence in the case showed a man ― whose identity was hard to determine ― get out a car, run across the screen and fire shots off camera.
Harris was picked out of a line-up by Dexter Saffold, the main witness of the shooting, and then charged and convicted.
But the prosecution began to unravel four years ago, when Harris discovered Saffold was legally blind ― a fact that was not mentioned during the trial ― and with his lawyers sought to reopen the case.
In an interview with CBS in 2019, Saffold confirmed he was legally blind, saying he had glaucoma.
"They didn't do anything wrong because they didn't know," Saffold said, of the prosecutors. "I didn't have to tell nobody about my medical history."
Harris was exonerated this past July but kept in custody while prosecutors planned to retry him. But they have since abandoned their case.
His mother Nakesha Harris said her son's release was "the best Christmas gift ever".
"I feel like I'm dreaming. It doesn't feel real," she told reporters just before he was released. "I guess, once I hold him in my arms, it'll be real."
Harris now plans to go to law school so he can help others who are wrongfully convicted to clear their names.
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