A Man Jailed For 400 Years Is Released After 34 Years

An armed robbery case that had been sentenced to 400 years in prison was dismissed this week by a US court after new evidence changed the course of the proceedings.

Al-Rai daily reports Sydney Holmes, 57, was sentenced to 34 years in prison in 1988 for stealing cars near Fort Lauderdale and killing people.

In 2020, Holmes submitted a request to a specialized unit to review cases in which the defendants insist that they are innocent.

Since that date, lawyers have scrutinized the information gathered in the Holmes case, and concluded that the testimonies recorded were biased and inaccurate.

Holmes’ defenders also discovered that the car he was driving, which was considered evidence in the case, as witnesses spotted it at the time of the armed robbery, was not the same vehicle used in the operation, but rather a similar one in terms of model.

Although Holmes insisted that there were six people who saw him at his parents’ house at the time of the accident, the police at the time did not listen to his claim.

One of the weaknesses in the evidence of the case was showing a group of pictures to a witness who was present at the time of the armed robbery, and the investigators focusing on Holmes, and re-displaying his pictures many times to suggest that he had been selected.

“I never lost hope,” Holmes told reporters after his release. I knew that this day would come sooner or later.

 

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