Freed murder convict sues Chicago over eyewitness who turned out to be blind

Darien Harris was exonerated after a private investigator found evidence that the key witness in his murder trial was legally blind. He spent over 12 years in prison.

By Frances Vinall
May 28, 2024 at 4:20 a.m. EDT

Darien Harris was an 18-year-old high school student when he was charged in connection with the death of a man at a Chicago gas station in 2011. He was later found guilty of murder based in large part on testimony from an eyewitness who turned out to be legally blind.

Harris spent more than 12 years behind bars before his conviction was vacated last year. Now 31, he is suing the city of Chicago, the Chicago Police Department and seven officers involved in the case.

“Like countless others, Mr. Harris’s odyssey through a criminal justice system was instigated by a Chicago Police Department that too often devalued the lives of people of color,” alleges the complaint, which was filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and first reported this week by the Chicago Tribune.

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