Photo: Maurice Hastings
A man who has been serving a murder sentence for nearly four decades has been freed in the United States. Because new DNA evidence shows a different person committed the murder.
Maurice Hastings spent more than 38 years in prison for the 1983 murder and two attempted murders of Roberta Wiedermeier in California. But new DNA evidence points to a different man who died in prison in 2020.
Hastings, now 69, was released on October 20 after a conviction was dismissed.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon described Hastings' case as a "terrible injustice."
"The justice system is not perfect, and when we learn of new evidence that undermines our confidence in the verdict, we have an obligation to act quickly," he said in the statement.
Roberta Wiedermeier was found dead in the boot of her car in 1983. He had a bullet wound on his head. She was sexually assaulted before the murder. Hastings was then charged with murder, and prosecutors sought the death penalty in a petition.
The jury could not agree on this in the first phase of the trial. But a jury found him guilty on a second trial, and in 1988 he was sentenced to life in prison.
The presence of semen was detected in a sample collected from the victim's mouth during the autopsy. Hastings has maintained his innocence since his arrest. But in 2000, the district attorney denied a request for DNA testing of that sample.
Finally, in 2021, he was able to convince the state, and in June DNA tests showed that the semen collected in the sample was not his. The DNA profile is then matched to a person who has been convicted of an armed kidnapping. There too he stuffed his female victim into the trunk of a car.
Hastings told reporters after his acquittal hearing on Oct. 20 that he had no bitterness over his 38 years in prison. And he wants to enjoy the rest of his life.
Hastings said, "I don't blame anyone, I'm not a bitter person, but I want to enjoy my life now."
Source: BBC.
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