Luis Diaz

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Charge:	Sexual Assault and Kidnapping
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	25
Year Crime:	1977
Year Convicted:	1980
Year Cleared:	2005
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Florida
County or Region of Crime:	Miami-Dade
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Luis Diaz was wrongly convicted in 1980 of seven rapes committed between 1977 and 1979 by a serial rapist labled as the "Bird Road Rapist." He was acquitted of one rape. There was no physical or forensic evidence linking Diaz to the crimes, so the jury relied on the eyewitness testimony of the victims. In 1993 two victims recanted their identifications of Diaz. In 1994 Diaz filed a motion to vacate those convictions, and seven years later, in 2001, those two cases were vacated. In 2003 Diaz requested DNA testing of biological evidence in his case. The only testable evidence was found in one of the cases in which the victim had recanted. In 2005 DNA tests of that evidence excluded him as the attacker. Since all the rapes were attributed to a lone rapist, it was determined that Diaz had been wrongly convicted of all the rapes. He was released on August 3, 2005 after 26 years of wrongful imprisonment. The State of California awarded compensation of $305,300 in 2014."
Conviction Caused By:	Erroneous eyewitness testimony by five rape victims.
Innocence Proved By:	Conviction vacated and charges dropped in August 2005 after DNA tests supported that he was not the serial rapist who committed a series of rapes in South Florida.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$1,300,000 (State of Florida, 2012)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	41
Age When Released:	67
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"DNA Tests Exonerate Florida Man After 26 Years in Prison, by Ihosvani Rodriguez and Chrystian Tejedor (staff), South Florida Sun-Sentinel, August 3, 2005"
Information Location 1:	http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12296187.htm
Information Source 2:	"DNA Frees Man After Quarter-Century, CNN, August 3, 2005"
Information Location 2:	http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/03/rape.exoneration.ap/
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Luis Diaz

Charge:

Sexual Assault and Kidnapping

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

25

Year Crime:

1977

Year Convicted:

1980

Year Cleared:

2005

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Florida

County or Region of Crime:

Miami-Dade

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Erroneous eyewitness testimony by five rape victims.

Innocence Proved By:

Conviction vacated and charges dropped in August 2005 after DNA tests supported that he was not the serial rapist who committed a series of rapes in South Florida.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$1,300,000 (State of Florida, 2012)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

41

Age When Released:

67

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"DNA Tests Exonerate Florida Man After 26 Years in Prison, by Ihosvani Rodriguez and Chrystian Tejedor (staff), South Florida Sun-Sentinel, August 3, 2005"

Information Location 1:

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12296187.htm

Information Source 2:

"DNA Frees Man After Quarter-Century, CNN, August 3, 2005"

Information Location 2:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/03/rape.exoneration.ap/

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Book About Case:

Book Information:

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