Man Convicted of Murder, Proven Innocent

Miguel Roman, 52, was released from prison, Dec. 19, after serving 20 years of a 60-year murder sentence; a crime that recent DNA evidence proved he couldn't have committed. His thrilled family accompanied him out of a courtroom in Hartford, Connecticut after the judge granted him a new trial. 

DNA Evidence Proves Innocence in Murder Conviction 

Two weeks earlier, authorities announced that new DNA test results eliminate Roman as a suspect in the 1988 murder of Carmen Lopez, who at the time was Roman's 17-year-old girlfriend. Pedro Miranda, who had dated one of Lopez's relatives, is now charged in her killing and in those of two other teenage Hartford girls in the 1980s, based on DNA evidence. 

Miranda is a registered sex offender accused of the murders of Mayra Cruz, 13 and Rosa Valentin, 16. 

Witness Testimony and Circumstantial Evidence Wrong 

Even though an FBI investigator testified in Roman's 1988 trial that tests eliminated him as a suspect in the murder of Lopez, the jury used the following to as the basis of their guilty verdict: 

• Witness testimony
• Circumstantial evidence  

Roman was convicted and taken into custody on June 10, 1988, and has been held since 2007 at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in South Suffolk, Connecticut. 

Connecticut Innocence Project Investigated the Case 

An attorney brought Roman's case to the Connecticut Innocence Project, one of several programs nationwide that investigates the cases of individuals who may have been wrongly imprisoned — especially when DNA or other evidence can prove their innocence. 

Roman's daughter Ana said to reporters that their entire family is planning a "welcome home" reunion and party for her father. She was eight years old when he was imprisoned. Roman's uncle expressed his joy: "It's a miracle."

(Source: MSNBC)

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