• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Man given 400-year prison sentence freed after serving 34 years

Home> News

Published 18:44 15 Mar 2023 GMT

Man given 400-year prison sentence freed after serving 34 years

His case was reinvestigated and it was found there was 'no evidence' linking him to the crime

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Featured Image Credit: Local 10 News

Topics: US News, Crime

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

Advert

Advert

Advert

An innocent man who was given a 400-year prison sentence has been exonerated after serving more than three decades behind bars.

Sidney Holmes, 57, was convicted in a 1988 armed robbery case after he was seen driving a car similar to one used in a carjacking.

Holmes was convicted of being the driver for two unidentified men who robbed a man and woman at gunpoint outside a store in Florida. The men also took the victims’ car.

In April 1989, he was sentenced to 400-years in prison and since then had been held at the Broward County Main Jail, Florida, until his release earlier this week.

Advert

Despite spending more than half his life in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, Holmes refuses to live with hate in his heart.

"With the Christian faith I have, I can't have hate," Holmes said. “Just have to keep moving.”

The case was examined when Holmes wrote to the State Attorney's Office Conviction Review Unit in 2020 and said he was ‘factually innocent’.

Sidney Holmes, 57, spent more than 30 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.
Local 10 News

A reinvestigation by Broward State Attorney’s Office Conviction Review Unit raised reasonable doubts about his guilt, Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor said.

Advert

Doubts were cast due to the ‘precarious eyewitness identification’ that was the key evidence given at trial.

The CRU reinvestigation found there was ‘no evidence tying Holmes to the robbery, other than the flawed identification of him as a suspect’.

In a statement, Pryor said: “We have one rule here at the Broward State Attorney’s Office – do the right thing, always. As prosecutors, our only agenda is to promote public safety in our community and to ensure that justice is served.

"I commend the victims, witnesses, and law enforcement officers for their candor and assistance in re-investigating a crime that occurred more than 34 years ago."

Holmes hugged his mum after being released.
Local 10 News

Advert

Executive Director of Innocence Project of Florida Seth Miller, who is also co-counsel for Holmes, said: “We are so thrilled our colleagues at the Broward Conviction Review Unit chose to collaboratively investigate Mr. Holmes’ case and saw significant issues with the evidence that we identified when we first looked into this case.

"It is a credit to State Attorney Pryor’s leadership that his office can look objectively at old cases and come to a decision that a miscarriage of justice has occurred when the evidence supports that conclusion.

"We are thankful to State Attorney Pryor and the entire Broward Conviction Review Unit team for giving Sidney his life back.”

Choose your content:

7 mins ago
an hour ago
  • 7 mins ago

    How man declared 'legally dead' walked into a courtroom to apply for a driving license

    And the astonishing part is, the judge said he was still legally dead

    News
  • an hour ago

    Doctor issues warning about major mistake millions make while driving that is ‘slowing your brain down’

    Most cars have this button on the dashboard - but be mindful of how long you're using it for

    News
  • an hour ago

    Expert reveals disturbing reason why you should never tell your dark secrets to ChatGPT

    Perhaps a set of code using data it's mined from the internet archive isn't your BFF?

    News
  • an hour ago

    The dark happenings behind the scenes of ChatGPT that many people don't know about

    In 2023, OpenAI was subjected to controversy following a TIME magazine investigation into ChatGPT

    News
  • Nearly 400 corpses found on site near US-Mexico border in 'house of horrors'
  • Major DB Cooper update as FBI releases 400 pages of classified documents on rogue skyjacker
  • Huw Edwards given six-month suspended prison sentence for making indecent images of children
  • Erik and Lyle Menendez could be freed from prison 'within weeks' as resentencing set to take place