Photo: LADAOffice
Earlier this week, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s officestated in a press releasethat its office determined exoneree Maurice Hastings should be found “factually innocent,” a legal term meaning the evidence proved conclusively that Hastings did not commit the crime. And the judge agreed.
“It means a lot. I’m grateful for the judge’s ruling, and the apologies — everything has been wonderful today,” Hastings said after the hearing, according to the Los Angeles Innocence Project. “I’m ready to move on with my life. I’m a happy man today.”
Hastings spent more than 38 years in state prison for Roberta Wydermyer’s murder as well as two attempted murders, the D.A.’s office said.
“Roberta’s body was found in the trunk of her vehicle and the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to her head,” it added. “The coroner conducted a sexual assault examination which involved swabbing of various body parts, including an oral swab on which semen was detected.”
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In 1988, Hastings was charged with special-circumstance murder but the jury deadlocked. A second jury convicted him, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He submitted a claim of innocence with the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021. Last June, DNA testing found the semen belonged to another person, Kenneth Packnett, who had died in prison in 2020 after being convicted of the armed kidnapping and forced copulation of a female victim who was placed in a vehicle’s trunk, the AP reported.
Hastings, who was 69 years old when he walked out of prison last October, told reporters he had long prayed the day of his freedom would come.
“I am not standing up here a bitter man, but I just want to enjoy my life now while I have it,” Hastings said at the time. The evening of his release, he and his family and lawyers had a celebratory dinner, where he enjoyed lobster, he toldLAist.
“After four months of investigation since the conviction was vacated, the District Attorney’s Office firmly believes that Mr. Hastings should be found factually innocent and that Kenneth Packnett was the actual killer,” the DA’s office stated.
source: people.com
