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Inwoodite Fernando Bermudez served 18 years for a crime he didn’t commit. And though he’s been proven innocent and is free, his conviction is still on the books. A new law proposed by Northern Manhattan representatives in Albany would pave the way for Bermudez to vacate that conviction, as well as provide a way for others imprisoned to prove their innocence. On Dec. 22, in his first press conference since being exonerated in November, Bermudez joined State Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, on the steps of the New York Supreme Court downtown to endorse the “Actual innocence Act.” “My wrongful conviction struck the very core of my being - it made me question my faith, my purpose and my future existence. An actual innocence law would enable wrongfully convicted individuals to have their claims heard, sooner rather than later, thereby eliminating the untold suffering of procedural delays,” Bermudez said in a press release from Schneiderman. A Manhattan judge threw out his conviction after a cooperating witness lied in court, and witnesses were improperly allowed to discuss a mug shot of Bermudez before identifying him as the shooter. Each one has since recanted. In a powerfully worded decision, Judge John Cataldo found “clear and convincing evidence” that Bermudez demonstrated his “actual innocence.” Despite the Judge's decision, there is no free-standing ground of actual innocence to vacate wrongful convictions in New York State. “Fernando’s experience illustrates exactly why we need to reform the criminal justice system to give innocent people locked up in prison a hearing when they can produce evidence conclusively proving they are not guilty. It’s that simple. Had this law been in place in the 1990s, it’s possible that Mr. Bermudez could have been a free man more than ten years ago,” Schneiderman said. “The Actual Innocence Act is about justice – it ensures that innocent people don’t spend decades behind bars while real criminals go free.”
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