Sentenced To 400 Years In Prison, This Man Was Released After Police And Witnesses Misidentified: Was Jailed For 408 Months

Illustration. (Pixabay/Qimono)

JAKARTA - A man in Florida, United States, who was serving a 400-year prison sentence for his role in an armed robbery in 1988, was released after a new investigation that led to his release.

Sidney Holmes, now 57, served a sentence of more than 34 years or about 408 months before being released this week.

His release comes after a recent investigation carried out after he filed a statement "which states he is innocent" for his role as a driver in an armed robbery of two people outside a supermarket in Fort Lauderdale.

"The prosecutor from the Convention Review Unit (CRU) found that Holmes had a reasonable claim that he was innocent because of how he became a suspect, and because of the identification of important eyewitnesses who became the main evidence against him in court," said Broward State Prosecutor Harold Pryor, in a statement., March 17th.

Investigations found that Holmes may have been misidentified by witnesses and police using "unreliable" practices at the time.

Prosecutors also found that an initial investigation in the 1980s involved a brother of one of the victims.

"There is no evidence linking Holmes to the robbery, other than the wrong identification of him as a suspect," said the investigative team.

"The two victims told the CRU's re-investigation that they believed Holmes should be released from prison," the investigative team continued.

After being found guilty, the prosecutor charged him with a sentence of 825 years in prison for armed robbery and because he refused to name the names of the non-existent conspirators, the observers said.

At the time, the judge argued that the 825-year sentence was excessive, so he decided on a 400-year sentence for Holmes.