Chicago Man Who Was Wrongfully Convicted of Murder Based on Testimony from Blind Witness Freed...

A 30-year-old Chicago man who was wrongfully convicted of murder on the testimony of a blind witness walked out of the Cook County Jail this week as a free man.

Darien Harris had served more than 12 years of his 76-year sentence before prosecutors decided not to move forward with their case and dropped the charges against him on Tuesday, his attorney, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, said at a news conference.

In April 2014, Harris was convicted of murder in the June 2011 fatal shooting of Rondell Moore and the attempted murder of mechanic Quincy Woulard at a Chicago gas station, according to his attorney and a court document. He was 18 and a week away from graduating high school at the time of his arrest, his attorney said.

Myerscough-Mueller, who is with the Exoneration Project and joined the team representing Harris in June 2020, said Harris’ previous attorney shared new information with the county’s Conviction Integrity Unit in July 2018 – including the critical revelation that the prosecution’s star witness in the case was legally blind.

That witness had pointed out Harris from a lineup a few days after the shooting.

The Conviction Integrity Unit responded to the information the following October, saying after a thorough review of the materials provided by Harris’ attorneys, they had not found clear and convincing evidence that Harris was probably innocent, Myerscough-Mueller said.

She added the CIU provided “no real explanation of what their investigation entailed, what their reasoning was or anything like that. They just said they investigated it, that their review was closed, basically it didn’t warrant action.”