Maurice Hastings has spent 38 of his 69 years in prison. In 1988, a US court found him guilty of murdering a woman - wrongly, as a DNA analysis now shows. Despite the injustice done to him, Hastings does not leave prison "a bitter man".
A man wrongly sentenced to life has been released from a California prison after serving 38 years. "I don't point fingers. I don't stand here as a bitter man," said 69-year-old Maurice Hastings. He wanted to enjoy his life now and just move forward.
District Attorney George Gascón announced the man's release based on DNA analysis. His conviction for murder was a "terrible injustice". Hastings had always denied the crime.
He was charged with kidnapping, sexually abusing and shooting a 30-year-old woman in Inglewood, California, in 1983. Her body was found in the trunk of her car. Months later, Hastings was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988.
According to the public prosecutor's office, Hastings had already pushed for a DNA analysis in 2000 in vain. The Los Angeles Innocence Project later became aware of the case. The organization tries to prove the innocence of the accused using DNA tests.
Last June, a DNA test revealed traces of semen found on the body were not from Hastings. This month, a database linked them to an inmate who died in 2020 while serving a lengthy sentence on other counts of kidnapping and rape.
District Attorney Gascón, addressing Hastings in announcing the decision, said: "You are a free man today because of your perseverance." He apologized to Hastings for the wrong decision and for the fact that DNA analyzes were not available at the time of his sentencing. "The system failed you. The system failed the victims."
