Sidney Holmes has been sentenced to 400 years in prison for allegedly participating in an armed robbery. Justice questioned the identification procedures used at the time.
More than half his life behind bars, for nothing. Sidney Holmes, 57, was released Monday after serving 34 years in a Florida prison, local media outlet WSVN reports.
In 1989 he was found guilty of being the driver of an armed robbery in southern that state that occurred in 1988. The then 23-year-old was sentenced to 400 years in prison and has always protested his innocence without being heard.
In 2020, Sidney Holmes, through his attorneys, approached the Broward County Conviction Review Unit to argue his case. This time the judiciary is listening and deems the charges against the 50s insufficient, the Chron said.
Wrong identification
More specifically, the prosecutors in charge of the case are questioning the identification practices used at the time. The main eyewitness to the facts was initially unable to identify Holmes among the six images presented to him. His photo would then have been included in several selections until it was finally determined. The suspect was convicted solely on the basis of this statement.
When arrested a few weeks after the incident, Sidney Holmes was driving a brown Oldsmobile Cutlass, a vehicle widely available in the United States in the late 1980s, which witnesses had identified as the car used in the robbery.
Despite the doubts, the judiciary had demanded an 825-year prison sentence for Holmes, who had previously been convicted of armed robbery. Eventually, a sentence of 400 years was imposed.
“I never lost hope”
In light of these facts, Broward’s prosecutors concluded that “there is no evidence connecting Holmes to the robbery,” citing a “misidentification” by the witness at the time, and confirmed the man’s innocence. Meanwhile, the victims of the armed robbery also demanded the release of the arrested man.
“I can’t have hate, I just have to move on. I never gave up hope,” Sidney Holmes said as he walked out of court a free man.
The moment of his reunion with his mother was immortalized by several journalists present for the occasion.
For his part, Broward County Attorney Harold F. Pryor believes it is the judiciary’s duty to be with the prisoner after his release. “I cannot apologize for past wrongs that a previous administration or law enforcement has done,” he says.
“All I can do is right a wrong, make it right, and possibly start the process of wholesome recovery,” he adds.
Under Florida law, any erroneously convicted prisoner is entitled to a sum of $50,000 a year wrongly spent in prison. However, as stated on the Innocence Project of Florida’s website, only about ten people were compensated.