In 1985, Rafael Ruiz was convicted of sexual assault and served a quarter of a century in prison for a crime he did not commit. But today in New York, a judge vacated Rafael’s conviction and dismissed all charges against him.
Rafael Ruiz (center) celebrates with his team from the Innocence Project including attorneys Seema Saifee (second from left) and Barry Scheck (right) after his exoneration. Photo credit: Sameer Abdel-Khalek/Innocence Project.
Rafael was initially offered a plea deal in exchange for a prison sentence of up to three years. He refused to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit and decided to fight the charges at trial. Although he did not match the description of the attacker, he was convicted and sentenced to 8 to 25 years in prison. He ended up serving the full sentence and was released in 2009.
This case is an example of what is referred to as the "trial penalty," where people receive much longer sentences if they choose to go to trial than they would have faced if they pled guilty. As a result, innocent people are often coerced into pleading guilty to avoid the possibility of a harsher sentence at trial.
Today, 35 years after he was convicted, Rafael was finally exonerated based on evidence discovered during a joint investigation by the Innocence Project and the New York County District Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Program.
Started in 1992 as a legal clinic at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project is now an independent nonprofit, affiliated with Cardozo, that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
