A man who spent nearly four decades behind bars for a murder he did not commit was formally declared innocent in a California court this week.
Maurice Hastings, per a regional report from KTTV, said he was “grateful” for the judge’s factual innocence ruling on Wednesday.
“It’s been wonderful today,” Hastings, now 69, said after the ruling. “I’m ready to move forward with my life. I’m a happy man right now.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s ruling, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his office had determined that Hastings “should be found factually innocent” in the 1983 abduction and murder case. Last October, Hastings was released from prison and his 1988 murder conviction was vacated following newly confirmed DNA evidence that linked the crime to someone else.
“Maurice Hastings survived a nightmare,” Gascón said earlier this week. “He spent nearly four decades in prison exhausting every avenue to prove his innocence while being repeatedly denied. But Mr. Hastings has remained steadfast and faithful that one day he would hear a judge proclaim his innocence.”
As detailed in an extensive breakdown of Hastings’ case from the National Registry of Exonerations, Hastings was convicted of murder and related charges in 1988 in connection with the 1983 killing of Roberta Wydermyer in the Inglewood area. Notably, no physical evidence had linked Hastings to the murder. A mistaken identification from a witness, meanwhile, has been pointed to as central to the original conviction.
The motion for Hastings’ factual innocence ruling was submitted by both the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Innocence Project. The latter, an organization focused on freeing those who have been wrongfully imprisoned, had made contact with Hastings years earlier amid his fight from behind bars for DNA evidence.
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