LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Gerardo Cabanillas from California has been proven innocent through a new DNA test after spending nearly three decades in prison for kidnapping, sexual assault, and robbery, announced a prosecutor.
Cabanillas was accused of robbing a man and woman and kidnapping and sexually assaulting the woman in Los Angeles in 1995. He was exonerated last week, stated Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón after spending 28 years in prison as an innocent man.
Addressing the press at a news conference, Gascón said, “I stand here with you with a deep sense of responsibility as a district attorney to address a tragic miscarriage of justice and to celebrate the exoneration and release of prison of an innocent man.”
Why was Gerardo Cabanillas imprisoned?
In 1995, a man and woman were robbed at gunpoint in Los Angeles by two men, who went on to sexually assault the woman. Cabanillas was arrested days after the crime because he generally matched the description of one of the suspects, said the district attorney.
“Mr Cabanillas always maintained that on the date of his arrest, he was coerced by the investigating detective into giving a false confession with a promise that he would be released on probation,” said Gascón.
Cabanillas was charged with 14 counts of felony, although there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime.
Throughout the trial, Cabanillas insisted he was innocent. In the end, he was handed a sentence that amounted to imprisonment for life.
How was Gerardo Cabanillas freed?
Cabanillas’ lawyers from the California Innocence Project, a non-profit that works to free wrongfully convicted people from prison, filed a motion to have DNA evidence related to the 1995 sexual assault victim tested in 2019. The results showed that none matched with Cabanillas.
“After a thorough review of all the evidence, including expert analysis of the purported confession and an interview with the sexual assault victim, we lost confidence in the conviction in this case,” revealed Gascón.
According to the district attorney's office, Cabanillas got a conditional release from prison in May 2023.
His permanent release came in September after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge vacated his conviction and found him factually innocent.
Alissa Bjerkhoel, the California Innocence Project’s interim director, said during the news conference, “The righting of a wrong under these circumstances is deeply profound. The colossal damage done because of this wrongful conviction cannot be measured. Gerardo has missed out on a lifetime in the free world.”
The new DNA testing has allowed the district attorney’s office to identify a new suspect, who is in custody in connection with an unrelated killing.
Cabanillas attended the news conference with his family but chose not to speak.
Addressing him, Gascón said, “To you and your family, I offer our deepest apologies for the horrible injustice that was caused.”
