A Chicago man who was sentenced to 76 years in prison for murder has now been freed after serving 12 years behind bars after it was revealed a key eyewitness is legally blind.
Darien Harris, now 30, had his conviction overturned earlier this month and will not face retrial in a fatal shooting, prosecutors said Tuesday.
‘These 12 1/2 years of being gone, it wasn’t easy at all,’ Harris told CBS upon being released. ‘But I fought, and now I’m here.’
Harris was an 18-year-old high school student when charged with murder after an ambush-style attack at a South Side gas station in June 2011 that left one man dead and another seriously injured.
Dexter Saffold, a passerby at the time of the shooting, identified Harris as the shooter, but it has been revealed that Saffold was registered as legally blind due to his glaucoma during the trial.
A Cook County judge officially dropped all charges against Harris, and he walked out of custody as a free man around 6pm on Tuesday.
Darien Harris, who was sentenced to 76 years in prison for murder, walked out of custody as a free man around 6pm on Tuesday
Harris has now been freed after serving 12 years behind bars fighting for a new trial
Harris was an 18-year-old high school student when charged with murder after an ambush-style attack at a South Side gas station in June 2011 that left one man dead and another seriously injured
Harris will not face retrial in a fatal shooting, as the key witness, Dexter Saffold, was revealed to be legally blind, prosecutors said Tuesday
‘I was trying to tell the people all this time he’s lying. He’s lying,’ Harris said of Saffold, the key witness against him in his trial. ‘Here’s what came about. He was really lying.’
On Tuesday morning, Cook County prosecutors agreed to drop all charges and not to retry him after reviewing the case.
‘We remain committed to the work of justice in the pursuit of safe and healthy communities,’ Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office said in a statement.
Harris has always maintained his innocence, claiming he was at home watching LeBron James play in the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks at the time of the shooting.
Earlier this month, a judge vacated his conviction but that only set up a new trial. He was then transferred from the Menard Correctional Center downstate to the Cook County Jail while waiting his new proceedings.
‘I’m so excited right now. I don’t even have the words to explain how grateful I am,’ Harris’ mother, Nakesha, told the Chicago Tribune outside of court Tuesday.
‘This will be his first Christmas with all his siblings in 12 years. He has a 5-year-old sister that he hasn’t met. This will be the best Christmas ever,’ Nakesha said.
It has been revealed that Saffold was legally blind for at least a decade before the 2011 shooting, as records dating back to 2002 show that he filed disability lawsuits
Earlier this month, a judge vacated his conviction but decided to retry him. He was then transferred from the Menard Correctional Center downstate to the Cook County Jail while waiting his new trial
‘I was trying to tell the people all this time he’s lying. He’s lying,’ Harris said of Saffold, the key witness against him in his trial. ‘Here’s what came about. He was really lying’
Harris told CBS from the Cook County Jail last week: ‘Look at the symbol of justice. It’s a blindfold with the scale tipped in favor. That’s how we come into the system as Black men. We come into the system blind – not knowing the law, not knowing nothing.’
Harris was arrested for the murder of Rondell Moore in 2011 and convicted during a bench trial in 2014.
Moore, 23, pulled into a BP gas station in Woodlawn because of car troubles after 8 pm on June 7, 2011 and he was assisted by a local mechanic who arrived at the station on his bike shortly afterward.
Moore was shot three times and died in a nearby parking lot as he attempted to flee. The 51-year-old mechanic survived suffering bullet wounds to his back and arm.
The station’s surveillance system did not capture the shooting, but prosecutors said the video showed a person walking away from a black Lexus and around the gas station building toward where the shooting occurred.
The video showed a man whose thin build and short hairstyle generally fit Harris, but the suspect’s face was not visible.
Days after the shooting, Harris was arrested after a witness, Saffold, said he saw the shooting while on his way home from a fast-food restaurant.
Rondell Moore, 23, was shot dead after pulling into a BP gas station in Woodlawn because of car troubles after 8 p.m. on June 7, 2011
The station’s surveillance system did not capture the shooting, but prosecutors said the video showed an individual walking away from a black Lexus
Saffold picked Harris out of a police lineup during the investigation and also identified him in court during the trial.
Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford said he based his ruling primarily on Saffold’s testimony.
It has been revealed that Saffold was legally blind for at least a decade before the 2011 shooting, as records dating back to 2002 show that he filed disability lawsuits.
Saffold acknowledged that he was blind in a 2019 interview with CBS and confirmed the medical records were authentic.
‘They didn’t do anything wrong, because they didn’t know,’ he said, ‘I didn’t have to tell nobody about my medical history.’
Saffold picked Harris out of a police lineup during the investigation and also identified him in court during the trial
Saffold acknowledged he was blind in a 2019 interview with CBS and confirmed the medical records were authentic
Harris’ attorney, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, said in court filings that Harris was wrongfully convicted based on mistaken eyewitness testimonies and without physical evidence tying him to the crime.
‘Justice is supposed to be blind. The eyewitness is not supposed to be blind,’ Myerscough-Mueller said. ‘That is not how you are supposed to convict someone. That is not how the justice system is supposed to work.’
‘He spent his formative years in prison. He’s still pretty young, so the good news is he has time to build a really beautiful life. We’re very grateful to Kim Foxx’s office for doing the right thing,’ she said after Harris was released.
‘I think Kim Foxx herself looked at the case and determined it was not something they would stand behind, given the evidence, that justice demanded this action,’ the attorney added.
‘He has had to grow up largely in prison, but he has remained so positive. He is such an inspiration to so many,’ she said.
Earlier this month, Cook County Judge Diana Kenworthy vacated Harris’ conviction and sentence, saying simply: ‘So we are going to start over.’
The judge, citing the serious nature of the charges at the time, declined to free Harris while he awaited his new trial.