At least six men around the country were freed this week after being wrongfully convicted of serious crimes that put them behind bars for a combined 180-plus years.
The string of overturned convictions came just in time for the holidays. But their releases are also part of a trend: According to the National Registry of Exonerations, the number of people being exonerated for charges like drug possession, homicide or sexual assault has spiked over the last several years.
The prisoners freed this week were all men of color who were teens or young adults at the time of their supposed crimes.
Here are their stories.
Faulty Eyewitness Evidence
Marvin Haynes was just 16 when he was arrested for the shooting death of 55-year-old Harry “Randy” Sherer at a Minneapolis flower shop during an attempted robbery in 2004.
Police interrogated the teen for hours while he denied having hurt anybody or even having been into the flower shop. He had no reason to rob anybody, he said. But he was found guilty the following year and sentenced to life in prison.
One eyewitness claimed to recognize Haynes as the gunman after previously saying it was another man who, as it turned out, was in another state at the time of the killing.
“Mr. Haynes’ conviction rested almost exclusively on eyewitness identification,” Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement, adding that there was no DNA, fingerprint or video evidence tying Haynes to the crime.
“To Marvin Haynes: You lost the opportunity to graduate from high school, attend prom, have relationships, attend weddings and funerals, and be with your family during holidays. For that, I am so deeply sorry. And for that, I commit to correcting other injustices and to making sure that we do not participate in making our own,” Moriarty said.
A Hennepin County judge signed an order setting aside Haynes’ conviction on Monday.
“I just want people to know that I am innocent. I was innocent from the very beginning,” Haynes told CNN the day after his release. “And I’m just happy that people just recognize it and understand my story.”
Four Decades Behind Bars
A pair of cousins, Jimmy Soto and David Ayala, were young adults when they were arrested and charged with the 1981 murders of two teenagers in Chicago.
A drive-by shooting in the city’s Pietrowski Park left 16-year-old Julie Limas and 18-year-old Marine Hector Valeriano dead of gunshot wounds. A third person, an alleged gang member, was injured nearby.
Soto and Ayala received life sentences despite a lack of physical evidence linking either to the crime. A man who said he was the getaway driver served as a state’s witness in the case against the cousins.
While in prison, Soto earned a bachelor’s degree as part of Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program and plans to attend law school, he told CNN. He said he’s already taken the LSAT.
“If there’s somebody sitting in a cell, male or female, who feels all hope is lost, it’s my hope I can reach back and help one of them,” Soto told NBC Chicago.
The two are believed to be the longest-held wrongfully convicted people in Illinois state history, according to CBS Chicago.
Two Teens Blamed For Two Crimes
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced this week that two men, Miguel Solario and Giovanni Hernandez, would be released after being wrongfully imprisoned for separate crimes.
Solario was arrested for a drive-by shooting that left 81-year-old Californian Mary Bramlett dead in 1998. Los Angeles prosecutors alleged that Solario, who was 19 at the time, had been in the car with several gang members. He received a life sentence.
“Miguel’s 25 years of wrongful incarceration shows how important it is for law enforcement to follow all leads and avoid tunnel vision, to present witnesses with a particular suspect only one time, and to recognize that, according to the new scientific consensus, when witnesses don’t identify the suspect, it points to their innocence,” Sarah Pace, an attorney for Solario, said in a statement. Pace works for the Northern California Innocence Project, which helped with the case.
Hernandez was just 14 years old when he was arrested for a drive-by Culver City shooting in 2006 that killed 16-year-old Gary Ortiz.
The teen was sentenced “to die in prison for a crime he did not commit,” Marisa Harris, an attorney in his case, said in a statement. Harris works for the Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic at Loyola Law School.
“These cases not only highlight the tragic impact on the lives of those directly affected but also underline the impact to the family and friends left behind,” Gascón said.
“I am committed to ensuring that lessons are learned from this grave error, “he added, “and that steps are taken to prevent similar injustices from occurring in the future.”
‘Ready To Begin Life Again’
Chicago man Brian Beals spent 35 years behind bars after he was wrongfully convicted in the killing of a 6-year-old boy.
On Tuesday, Beals walked out of prison after a judge vacated his sentence and dismissed all charges, The Associated Press reported.
In 1988, when Beals was a 22-year-old college student, he got into an altercation with a drug dealer before getting in his car and driving away. While driving away, someone fired a gun in Beals’ direction and hit the boy and his mother.
Beals was later convicted of murder despite several witnesses saying they saw someone else fire the gun.
His conviction was overturned thanks in part to the Illinois Innocence Project, which found five witnesses to confirm that Beals wasn’t the shooter.
“Relief, happiness, it was just amazing to walk out of there,” Beals told The Associated Press following his release. “I’m ready to begin life again.”