{"id":31859,"date":"2023-04-21T08:22:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T08:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=31859"},"modified":"2023-04-21T08:22:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T08:22:14","slug":"its-finally-over-two-men-set-free-after-wrongly-serving-17-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/04\/21\/its-finally-over-two-men-set-free-after-wrongly-serving-17-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s finally over\u2019: two men set free after wrongly serving 17 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two men who served nearly 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of attempted murder were declared innocent Thursday by a California judge. Under a new law, the state is required to pay them each $140 for every day they spent behind bars, or about $900,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The verdicts for Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford concluded a new trial that began in October after a state appeals court panel vacated their convictions and they were freed in 2020. The trial included a dramatic confession by the actual shooter, Chad Brandon McZeal, a gang member who\u2019s serving a life sentence for murder in an unrelated case, the defense team said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the judge ruled, the men hugged each other and their attorneys. Outside the courthouse, the men were cheered by family members and supporters. Rayford, clutching his baby daughter, called it an \u201camazing\u201d feeling to have their records finally wiped clean and their reputations restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought about this day for so long. I thought about it when I was locked up for 17 years. I thought about it for my last two years being free. I waited for this day because, you know, I knew I was innocent of every crime they said I committed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense attorneys said the case was the first brought under a law that guarantees compensation for defendants who have their cases thrown out and also allows them to present evidence proving their innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glass and Rayford were 17 and 18, respectively, when they were arrested after a 2004 shooting during an altercation involving a group of teens at a home in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. Two people were struck by gunfire, but the injuries were not serious, according to court filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Four<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Juan Rayford, back to camera, and Dupree Glass, back center, hug attorneys Eric Dubin, left, and Annee Della Donna after a judge ruled the two men were wrongfully convicted. Photograph: Marcio Jos\u00e9 S\u00e1nchez\/AP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both defendants were convicted of 11 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat trial never should have been brought in the first place,\u201d defense attorney Annee Della Donna told the Associated Press. \u201cThere was no evidence tying them to the shooting. Zero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new statute, which took effect in 2020, gives the defense a chance show that there\u2019s a \u201cpreponderance of evidence\u201d showing innocence, she said. \u201cWe proved their innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt,\u201d Della Donna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The convictions of Glass and Rayford relied heavily on the testimony of just two witnesses who later recanted their stories. During a five-year investigation, defense investigators found multiple other witnesses who said, \u201cOh no, they weren\u2019t the shooters, they never had a gun,\u201d Della Donna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair maintained from the beginning that they were not involved in the shooting. Their case was taken up by the Innocence Rights project at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not big for words. But today is a wonderful day. For 20 years we\u2019ve been living this nightmare. It\u2019s finally over. We can go on with our lives.\u201d Glass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glass, 36, and Rayford, 37, now both work as drivers for Walmart. Rayford is with his high school sweetheart, who waited for him while he was in prison. Both men are new fathers to baby girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Angeles county superior court Judge H Clay Jacke\u2019s decision on Thursday was \u201ca long, detailed ruling exonerating them for any and all crimes\u201d related to the shooting, said defense attorney Eric Dubin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday the judge righted a wrong,\u201d Dubin said. \u201cIn my over 30 years of trying cases, I\u2019ve never experienced such a magical moment where I\u2019m able to see justice come to light so vividly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubin said he expects the state victims compensation board to approve the nearly $900,000 in compensation due each man under the new law. On top of that, defense attorneys plan on suing the state, county and district attorney\u2019s office for wrongful prosecution, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The district attorney\u2019s office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge\u2019s decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two men who served nearly 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of attempted murder were declared innocent Thursday by a California judge. Under a new law, the state is required to pay them each $140 for every day they spent behind bars, or about $900,000. The verdicts for Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":31863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,12],"tags":[2848,8659,7960,8289,8924,11282,10507,11139,2808,5927,9910,5455,9807,9947,2416,11525,11166,10197,12005,10419,10342,7123,12309,5382,7964,8306,11167,6736,11307,7389,9766,11581,214,2933,9539,8596,10415,594],"class_list":["post-31859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-world-news","tag-california","tag-camera","tag-case","tag-chad","tag-chance","tag-convicted","tag-court","tag-courthouse","tag-daughter","tag-drivers","tag-dupree-glass-juan-rayford","tag-family","tag-gun","tag-gunfire","tag-h","tag-injuries","tag-innocent","tag-investigation","tag-judge","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-los-angeles","tag-men","tag-murder","tag-north","tag-prison","tag-prosecution","tag-school","tag-sentence","tag-shooter","tag-teens","tag-trial","tag-university","tag-university-of-california","tag-victims","tag-walmart","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}