{"id":33110,"date":"2023-03-14T20:32:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T20:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/?p=33110"},"modified":"2023-03-14T20:32:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T20:32:29","slug":"florida-man-serving-400-year-jail-term-for-armed-robbery-exonerated-after-34-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/2023\/03\/14\/florida-man-serving-400-year-jail-term-for-armed-robbery-exonerated-after-34-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Man Serving 400-Year Jail Term For Armed Robbery Exonerated After 34 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

57-year-old man, Sidney Holmes, has been released after serving more than 34 years of a 400-year prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holmes was arrested in October 1988 for allegedly being the driver for two unidentified men who robbed a man and woman at gunpoint outside a store, according to Pryor. The two unidentified men stole the male victim\u2019s car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holmes was convicted in a jury trial in April 1989, and sentenced to 400 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state of Florida reinvestigated the case and determined he did not commit armed robbery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t put it into words,\u201d<\/em> said Sidney Holmes, now 57, in an interview with ABC affiliate WPLG after he was exonerated and freed on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor, a thorough reinvestigation of the 1988 armed robbery case that led to Holmes\u2019 conviction \u201craised reasonable doubts about his guilt.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the Christian faith I have, I can\u2019t have hate,\u201d<\/em> Holmes said. \u201cJust have to keep moving.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Holmes contacted the State Attorney\u2019s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) claiming he was \u201cfactually innocent\u201d<\/em> of the armed robbery of two people outside a convenience store, Pryor said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CRU found that there is “no evidence” connecting Holmes to the robbery besides a flawed identification of him and the vehicle involved in the robbery. The CRU found that witness identification of Holmes was likely a “misidentification,” partly due to the photo and live lineup practices commonly used by law enforcement at the time, which are “scientifically unreliable,” according to the state attorney’s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state attorney’s office also found that Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies who did the original investigations “expressed shock” that Holmes was sentenced to 400 years and had served more than three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have one rule here at the Broward State Attorney\u2019s Office \u2013 do the right thing, always,”<\/em> Pryor said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As prosecutors, our only agenda is to promote public safety in our community and to ensure that justice is served. I commend the victims, witnesses and law enforcement officers for their candor and assistance in reinvestigating a crime that occurred more than 34 years ago.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

57-year-old man, Sidney Holmes, has been released after serving more than 34 years of a 400-year prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. Holmes was arrested in October 1988 for allegedly being the driver for two unidentified men who robbed a man and woman at gunpoint outside a store, according to Pryor. The two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":33112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[8567,8566],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33113,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33110\/revisions\/33113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceofnaija.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}