The wait was long. After 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, a 35-year-old New Yorker, Sheldon Thomas, was released from prison. It was in 2004 that this African-American was convicted of the murder of another 14-year-old at the timein Brooklyn.
In a court hearing attended by ABC TV, the wrongfully accused man said he forgives investigators, a prosecution witness, prosecutors and thanks the judge who exonerated him . “I waited a long time“, he breathed.
In a statement, the prosecutor said thata review investigation showed he had been intentionally wrongfully accused by police officers by means of a photo of a namesake. “The accused was arrested thanks to a witness who had identified someone else with the same namean error then concealed and justified in the pleadings”, wrote the prosecutor.
A false identification had therefore led to his arrest and a witness had named Sheldon Thomas. He was then sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Note that the real culprit of the murder has still not been found.
