Clarence Moses-EL was wrongfully convicted of rap3 and @ss@ult in 1988 and sentenced to 48 years in pr!son.
His conviction arose from a Denver woman who, after a night of drinking with three men in 1987, dreamt that Moses-EL was her @tt@cker.
Following the incident that summer night, she suffered severe injuries, including broken facial bones and the loss of sight in one eye.
While hospitalized, she identified Moses-EL as her assailant, claiming his face appeared to her in a dream.
Despite maintaining his innocence, Moses-EL’s appeal for justice was initially thwarted.
The Denver Police had discarded crucial DNA evidence from the case, including body swabs and the victim’s clothing, despite a judge’s order to preserve it.
This destruction of evidence came under scrutiny, with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser acknowledging the prolonged suffering it caused both the victim and Moses-EL.
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In a pivotal turn of events, Moses-EL’s release from prison occurred in 2015 when a Denver judge overturned his convictions and granted him a new trial. This decision was influenced in part by the confession of another man, LC Jackson, who had been with the victim that night. Jackson reached out to Moses-EL in 2013, writing a letter stating, “Let’s start by bringing what was done in the dark into the light,” which led to a hearing where he admitted to striking the woman during sex.
In 2016, after nearly three decades of incarceration, a jury found Moses-EL not guilty of all charges. His exoneration was a significant moment in his life; outside the Denver jail, the 60-year-old expressed, “This is the moment of my life, right here. I just want to get home to my family, my grandchildren. It’s wonderful; I waited a long time for this.”
Moses-EL is set to receive approximately $2 million in compensation from the state, as dictated by a Colorado law that allows wrongfully convicted individuals to petition for $70,000 per year served. In his case, this compensation underscores what Weiser described as a “travesty of justice,” emphasizing the dire need for preserving DNA evidence to prevent such tragic mistakes in the future.
Moses-EL reflected on the importance of this compensation, stating, “That’s another reason why I’m happy because it allows me to regain a lot of things that meant so much to me, so dear to me, that now having possession of these things again, it makes me feel like a full person.”
