A Cook County judge on Tuesday overturned a murder conviction that was based in part on the testimony of a witness who was legally blind.
But Darien Harris will remain in jail because prosecutors said they plan to try him again.
Harris, 30, has spent the last 12 years in prison after being found guilty of killing Rondell Moore and wounding another man on June 7, 2011, at a BP gas station in Woodlawn on the South Side.
Instead of facing a jury, Harris chose to have his case decided by Judge Nicholas Ford. There was no physical evidence linking Harris to the shooting, but the judge cited the strong testimony of an eyewitness, Dexter Saffold.
Saffold told the judge he saw the shooting from less than 20 feet away as he was riding his motorized scooter home from a restaurant. He said the shooter had even bumped into him as he ran off.
Saffold identified Harris for police and again at trial as the gunman.
Ford called the testimony “unblemished,” and said he believed Saffold was an “honest witness,” according to a report by Injustice Watch published by the Sun-Times. The judge sentenced Harris to 76 years in prison.
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One problem: Saffold had been declared legally blind by a doctor in 2002.
Attorneys working on Harris’ appeal found that Saffold’s vision problems had been documented in several lawsuits he had filed against colleges, a landlord and two employers in the years before Harris’ trial.
Seeking to get Harris’ conviction overturned, his lawyers asked the Cook County state’s attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit to review the case. The unit did conduct a review, but the office decided to take no action, according to defense attorney Lauren Myerscough-Mueller.
On Tuesday, prosecutors told Judge Diana Kenworthy that they agreed Harris’ conviction and sentence should be vacated, but they said they still believed Harris was the gunman and planned to take him to trial a second time.
Saffold wasn’t the only witness, prosecutors told Kenworthy. A second man, Aaron Jones, told a grand jury that he drove Harris to the gas station just before the shooting. Jones was pulled over by police shortly afterward and identified Harris, prosecutors said.
But Jones recanted that identification at the trial, claiming police had threatened him into pointing the finger at Harris. Jones has since died.
Defense attorneys said a clerk at the gas station was also pressured by police to identify Harris, even though he said he recognized the shooter and it wasn’t Harris.
Before being asked to identify Harris in a lineup, the clerk said detectives showed him a photo of Harris and said he was the shooter, according to the defense lawyers. The clerk didn’t identify Harris and wasn’t called at trial.
In deciding against releasing Harris while he waits for another trial, Judge Kenworthy cited the seriousness of the charge and the decades in prison Harris faces if convicted again.
Harris is due back in court Dec. 19, when a trial date could be set.
