{"id":13588,"date":"2023-12-27T21:57:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T21:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mlecharbinger.org\/?p=13588"},"modified":"2023-12-29T22:23:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T22:23:23","slug":"chicago-man-darien-harris-gets-charges-dropped-after-12-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mlecharbinger.org\/?p=13588","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Man Darien Harris Gets Charges Dropped After 12 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Gianna Michel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 19, 2023, Chicago man Darien Harris, was reunited with his family for the first time in 12 years. Harris was convicted in 2011, on charges for a fatal shooting. Harris was newly 18, came from a stable family and had no previous criminal record. A witness, Dexter Saffold took the stand and identified Harris as the shooter. There was no physical evidence linking Harris to the murder, and there was no jury to hear Safford\u2019s statement. Although the judge found that the statement was enough to convict Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Harris was found guilty and sentenced to 76 years in prison. Continuing on to 2019, Harris was fighting to get his conviction overturned. It was later revealed Safford had unknown vision issues, but he testified that he had no problem seeing. Harris\u2019s attorney claimed that if Safford lied about issues with his vision he could have also lied about Darien firing the gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Harris\u2019s attorney filed an application for the case to be reviewed by the Cook County State\u2019s Conviction Integrity Unit. The application mentions that another witness who was not called to stand provided a sworn statement saying detectives pressured him to identify someone he didn\u2019t believe was the shooter. This witnesses recanted his statement identifying Harris as the shooter. Another witness claimed he saw the shooting and the shooter, and it was not Harris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saffold\u2019s vision problems have been documented in lawsuits he has filed, claiming that he was discriminated against due to his visual disability. In 2002 he began receiving Social Security disability benefits, as he was declared legally blind by a doctor. Saffold claimed he informed the prosecutors of his medical history but neither of them disclosed this information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After numerous attempts to get his case revisited, on December 19th, prosecutors decided to drop all charges against him. After his release Harris said he wanted to \u201cchill with [his] family\u201d and \u201ceat some real food.\u201d He spoke about how not only was he imprisoned, but his family was too. They were missing him just as much as he was missing them. Harris\u2019 mom said she was \u201cat a loss for words.\u201d She described his homecoming as \u201cthe best Christmas gift ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris was convicted weeks before his graduation, leading him to finish his GED in prison. Harris looks forward to starting a family and pursuing a career as an attorney. He claims that he can\u2019t get the time he spent in prison back but he can make some new memories. \u201cIf you asked me to choose the money or my time back, I\u2019d rather take my time back because I missed some of my best years, but, man, I\u2019m going to have some good years now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 19th, 2023, Chicago man Darien Harris had his charges for a fatal shooting dropped after 12 years. Read more about Harris’ journey to freedom, written by Gianna Michel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,23,11],"tags":[4843,4844,4846,4845,2784,2861],"class_list":["post-13588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-national","category-news","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-man-darien-harris","tag-chicago-man-darien-harris-gets-charges-dropped-after-12-years","tag-darien-harris","tag-national-news","tag-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t