AFRICA
Innocent Man Freed from Prison After 17 Years
After spending nearly 17 years in prison, Missouri man Richard Anthony Jones has been freed after his proving of innocence to the crime. Initially locked up for a 1999 robbery, supporters reportedly, “found another man who looked enough like him that the victim and other witnesses said they could no longer be sure who committed the crime.”
Jones, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, always insisted that he was innocent and did not commit the crime. As a result, he asked two organizations to help prove that he was not the one who committed the robbery.
Alice Craig, Jones’ attorney, said that everyone was “floored” by the two’s physical alikeness. While not accusing the other man, “Ricky” for committing the robbery, Moriarty knew that based on the new evidence, conviction against Jones was unreasonable. Ricky, at a hearing, testified that the did not commit the crime either.
Like Jones, Ricky is also from Kansas City, but in Kansas as opposed to Missouri. An investigation held found evidence that Ricky lived close to where the robbery occurred, but no DNA, fingerprint or other traces could be found. As a result, no evidence could tie to whether Jones or Ricky committed the crime.
It is also reported that, “After the innocence project attorneys showed the pictures of the two men to the victim, two witnesses and the prosecutor in Jones’ case, all four said they could not tell the two men apart.”
On the day of the robbery, Jones testified that he was with his girlfriend and family in Kansas City, and was thus sentenced to more than 19 years in prison. Jones, being bitter and angry during his sentence, could not understand why he was incarcerated—after seeing the photo of Ricky, he quickly understood the confusion that witnesses must have experienced.
Alice Craig says that, “Everybody has a doppelganger. Luckily we found his.”
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons