According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, a California man who spent nearly four decades in jail for a murder he did not commit was pronounced innocent on Wednesday.
“Maurice Hastings, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983, narrowly escaped the death penalty & spent 38 years in prison, was found factually innocent by Judge Ryan today,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón tweeted this week.
In a subsequent tweet, he stated that Hastings “survived a nightmare.”
“We continue to work on correcting these injustices that many have experienced due to our current criminal legal system, including responses to requests submitted under prior administrations, such as Mr. Hastings,’” he tweeted.
Hastings was imprisoned over the murder of Roberta Wydermyer in 1983, as well as two attempted murders.
He was charged with special-circumstance murder, and while the district attorney’s office sought the death penalty at first, the trial ended in a deadlocked jury, according to the Associated Press. Hastings was sentenced to life in state prison without the possibility of release in 1988.
DNA evidence led to his acquittal
Hastings has long maintained his innocence, leading the district attorney’s office to investigate. Furthermore, in June, DNA testing revealed that another person, Kenneth Packnett, died in prison in 2020.
According to Gascón, the office’s ConvictionIntegrityUnit interviewed witnesses and analyzed evidence, concluding that Hastings is “factually innocent of the offenses” he was accused of.
The district attorney’s office and the Los Angeles Innocence Project filed a motion to invalidate Hastings’ conviction and release him immediately. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan granted the request in October, and Hastings was released.
Hastings and his team sought a judge last week to declare him “factually innocent” to clear his name.
According to Paula Mitchell, director of the Los Angeles Innocence Project at California State University, Los Angeles, Hastings’ innocence was confirmed in part thanks to funds acquired by the school’s Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.
“This funding makes it possible to test DNA evidence in wrongful conviction cases with claims of actual innocence,” Mitchell said.