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’s statement. Although the judge found that the statement was enough to convict Harris.
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’s attorney claimed that if Safford lied about issues with his vision he could have also lied about Darien firing the gun.
Harris’s attorney filed an application for the case to be reviewed by the Cook County State’s 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’t 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.
Saffold’s 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.
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 “chill with [his] family” and “eat some real food.” 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’ mom said she was “at a loss for words.” She described his homecoming as “the best Christmas gift ever.”
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’t get the time he spent in prison back but he can make some new memories. “If you asked me to choose the money or my time back, I’d rather take my time back because I missed some of my best years, but, man, I’m going to have some good years now,” he said.
