“I've been looking forward to this day for almost 32 years. Finally, justice be done.” A San Francisco judge exonerated Joaquin Ciria, 60, after he spent more than half his life in prison for a wrongful murder conviction.
Ciria was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the shooting death of Felix Bastarrica, who was shot in the head after an argument in a San Francisco alley.
An 18-month investigation by the commission located new witnesses and evidence and found “a cascade of errors” in how the case was handled, including police coercion of the key witness, who was a teenager at the time, said Bazelon, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. “There was no DNA, no fingerprints, no murder weapon was ever recovered,” she said, adding that Ciria had always maintained his innocence and had two alibi witnesses who said he was home at the time of the murder but were never called by the defense, possibly because they only spoke Spanish. “Had a jury heard this case today there would not have been a conviction.”“Mr. Ciria has been in prison for more than 30 years for a crime he did not commit,” Boudin said.
BREAKING: Our office’s Innocence Commission achieves first exoneration as Joaquin Ciria’s conviction was overturned in court.Congrats to the Innocence Commission, DA
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