A Florida man serving 400 years in prison for armed robbery walked out of jail Monday

A Florida man who was serving a 400-year sentence for armed robbery was released from prison on Monday, March 13, after the judge annulled the verdict due to fresh evidence indicating the prosecution's case was seriously defective. 

Sidney Holmes, 57, was imprisoned for more than 34 years for a carjacking that occurred in 1988 close to Fort Lauderdale. Holmes approached the Conviction Review Section of the Broward State Attorney's Office in 2020 and claimed he was in fact innocent. It started everything off. 

Due to a biased witness identification process, a misguided focus on the defendant's vehicle, and a strong alibi, the prosecution is now adamant that the defendant did not commit the crime.

According on these circumstances, "the State Attorney's Office would not charge him today," according to a statement released on Monday by the Broward County prosecutor's office. Holmes hugged his mother outside the Broward County Main Prison after being let go. Holmes told reporters, "I never would give up hope.

 "This is the day I knew would arrive sooner or later," the speaker said. We have one rule here at the Broward State Attorney's Office - do the right thing, always, said Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor in a statement praising everyone who took part in the reinvestigation.

Holmes' predicament started in the summer of 1988 when a man saw him driving an Oldsmobile Cutlass in South Florida that was brown and from the 1970s. According to the county prosecutors' final brief on the case, which was given to the Conviction Review Unit, the man's brother and a woman had been robbed three weeks previously by someone driving a car similar to that one. 

The victim was told about the car by the victim's brother, who then informed the police. According to the document, police instantly focused on Holmes, who had been sentenced for his part as the driver in two armed robberies in 1984.

In the heist on June 19, 1988, the victim said that an Oldsmobile stopped behind his vehicle outside of a convenience shop, and that two individuals then approached and grabbed it at gunpoint. He claimed there was still a driver at the wheel of the suspects' vehicle.

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