Darien Harris has served time in jail for 12 years under the prosecution that the is guilty of the murder of one man and critical injuries of another after a gas station assault. At only eighteen years old, Harris was sentenced to seventy-two years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. Furthermore, six days before Christmas, the court dropped charges on account of the key eyewitness being found ineligible to testify due to blindness at the time.
During the crime, Harris was not outside of his home at the time. Instead, he could not miss watching the NBA final that night.
Release After More Than a Decade
Now thirty, Harris walked out of the Cook County Jail around 6:05 p.m. on Dec, 19, 2023. Luckily, Harris has the continued support of many friends and family. Harris briefly spoke on how lucky he is to be back with his family, stating:
I’m happy. I finally made it…Twelve and a half years, I made it. They had to deal with the same thing that I had to deal with — me missing all these Christmases; now I get to finally spend a Christmas with my family…I get to actually call my family when I feel like it, and they can call me when they feel like it.
State Attorney Kim Foxx worked with Harris to win his exoneration back. Foxx is also a key worker to others who face wrongful imprisonment. Foxx, in her role as Cook County’s top prosecutor, is also the first Black prosecutor to serve as the state’s attorney.
This year Foxx’s office is announcing a revamp of the office handling wrongful conviction cases. Now, the Conviction Integrity Unity will be the Conviction Review Unit. This case comes with her increasing popularity in working with wrongful convictions, most commonly in the Black and Brown communities. In a statement, Foxx declares the change as a representation of a new approach to community fairness.
This move further symbolizes our promise to the people we serve that we will continue to review, rectify, and restore justice, especially in cases marred by historical injustices and misconduct.
The Arrest of Harris at Age 18
At Harris’ arrest in 2011, no physical evidence connected him to the murder of Ronell Moore. Someone shot Moore, age 23, multiple times after pulling into a gas station in Woodlawn due to car troubles on June 11, 2011.
This includes a local mechanic, who also caught in the fire when trying to assist with his car. The surveillance system did not catch the shooting. Instead, it caught an image of a person walking around the gas station building where it happened.
Despite this, the legally blind eyewitness chose Harris out of the arranged lineup of suspects. Prosecutors did not know until later, when Harris found out himself, that the eyewitness was legally blind and unfit to testify.
Medical History Overlooked
Dexter Saffold, claiming to have seen the event while driving by a fast food establishment, did not disclose that he was legally blind in the court’s eyes at least a decade before the shooting. This includes records dating back to 2002 with disability lawsuits filed under his name. Unfortunately, his medical history was not taken into account. Especially the legal documents stating, “Mr. Dexter Saffold is permanently disabled from any job. He is legally blind.”
In a later interview in 2019, Saffold himself confirmed the accuracy of the documents. Saffold despite being the only witness specifically pointing towards Harris, directed the remaining results of the trial. Two other witnesses testified but could not identify it as Harris.
However, Harris still spent a great deal of his younger years learning and growing up in prison.
Written by Brielle R. Buford
Sources
abc7News: Man convicted by legally blind witness has all charges dropped, released in Chicago murder case
Chicago Sun-Times: Man whose murder conviction was based on legally blind witness is freed: ‘I’m happy. I finally made it’
Daily Mail: Chicago teen, Darien Harris, sentenced to 76 years in prison for murder is freed after serving a dozen years when his conviction was overturned as key testimony came from a BLIND witness
Chicago Sun-Times: Kim Foxx revamps Cook County wrongful conviction unit, names senior adviser as new head
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of pmonaghan‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Marcin Bajer‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
