A Chicago man who spent 12 years in prison for murder before he was exonerated when investigators found out that the witness to the murder was discovered to be legally blind. The witness had advanced glaucoma and lied about issues with his eyesight.
Darien Harris, now 31, was sentenced to 76 years in prison in 2014 for first-degree murder in connection with the 2011 killing of Rondell Moore on Chicago’s South Side. Harris entered prison at the age of 18, but he was exonerated and released last December and now intends to sue the Chicago Police Department.
Despite now being free, Harris is suing the city and police department. According to the Chicago Tribune, he alleges that police fabricated evidence and compelled witnesses into making false statements.
Harris has expressed that he’s struggled since being back in the normal world.
“I don’t have any financial help. I’m still (treated like) a felon, so I can’t get a good job. It’s hard for me to get into school,” he told the Tribune. “I’ve been so lost.
“I feel like they took a piece of me that is hard for me to get back.”
Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, one of Harris’s attorneys, highlighted the irony, stating, “Justice is supposed to be blind. The eyewitness is not supposed to be blind.” Additionally, a gas station worker present during the shooting testified, affirming that Harris was not the perpetrator.
