DNA evidence exonerates New York City man for 1985 sex assault
After spending a full 25-year sentence in prison for a crime he did not commit, a Bronx, New York, man was exonerated by the first prosecutorial conviction review unit on the East Coast.
Rafael Ruiz was convicted in 1985 for sexually assaulting a girl in East Harlem. Ruiz, then 25, was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison and was released on parole in 2009 after serving the entire stint.
Now, at the age of 60, Ruiz had his felony conviction wiped off his criminal record after newly tested DNA from the victim’s sex assault kit found by the Innocence Project and the Manhattan District Attorney Office’s Conviction Integrity Program excluded him from the case.
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How do you give someone back their life after that long? And think of all the people who are really guilty and get off on lack of evidence or a loop hole.
I guess when we are the victim we trust that the justice system gets the right person.
When we are the accused, we pray we do not get the shaft.
Some times an innocent man goes to prison and a guilty man walks free. We all know from experience the authorities can use some shady or even made up evidence to up their conviction rates.