Two Men Cleared After Years Behind Bars

Two men were exonerated today through the work of the Ohio Innocence Project and Utah’s Rocky Mountain Innocence Center – both members of the Innocence Network.

David Ayers was freed today in Ohio after he served a decade in prison for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit.

Post-conviction DNA testing was granted early last year and recent results excluded both Ayers and the victim from key evidence at the crime scene. Although the prosecution agreed to drop the charges against Ayers, they have suggested they could bring new charges against him if they can rebuild the case down the road. Ayers stated that during his trial, he was never made aware that the biological evidence existed.

Read more about his release

.

In Utah this morning, Third District Court Judge Royal Hansen

issued an order

finding Harry Miller factually innocent of the robbery for which he was convicted of in 2003.

The robbery took place three years earlier at a convenience store in Salt Lake City when Miller was in Louisiana recovering from a stroke. His conviction was based on mistaken eyewitness identification.

Miller was released in 2007

, when his conviction was overturned under Utah’s Post-Conviction Remedies Act.