New Yorker served 25 years for rape he did not commit

Rafael Ruiz, 60, spent half his life in prison for rape that he did not commit. A DNA test allowed to prove the innocence of a man. This publication writes NBC News.

35 years after being convicted of Rafael Ruiz, the New York State Supreme Court dropped all charges against him. Now the man is 60 years old. In prison, he spent half his life.

Ruiz was convicted of sexual violence in 1985, sentenced to 25 years in prison, and served the maximum sentence. He was released on parole in 2009, but a guilty verdict still hung over him, although he always pleaded not guilty.

On January 28, the New York State Supreme Court overturned the conviction against Ruiz and dropped all charges against him based on evidence from a DNA test, according to the Innocence project, which had been working on the Ruiz case for more than 10 years.

Despite the fact that Ruiz can no longer perform all the movements that he could do in his youth, the news of the release from responsibility made him dance. “Sometimes when I feel really happy, I just do it. I don't care about my knees or anything like that. I just do a little break dance, ”Ruiz said.

He noted that he lost 25 years of his life because he insisted on his innocence and refused to plead guilty. “Today I feel like a mountain has fallen off my shoulders and I look forward to a good life to move forward,” he shared.

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Ruiz was accused of being one of three men who sexually assaulted a woman on Harlem's rooftop in 1984. The victim said that the name of the man who brought her to the roof and went to the apartment for two other men was Ronnie. But when she was asked which apartment the men had left, she pointed to Brother Ruiz’s apartment.

Ruiz agreed to be questioned by the police and took a picture, "not understanding how his photograph will be used," as participants in the Innocence project said. The photograph was among the photographs with five other men, all of whom were black, although the victim did not describe Ronnie as such. According to the victim, Ruiz is most like an attacker.

Initially, Ruiz was offered a deal: he had to plead guilty and “get off” for a period of 1,5 to 3 years. The prosecutors were supposed to acknowledge the weaknesses of the evidence in the case, according to the Innocence project. However, the accused refused to make a deal because he pleaded not guilty and stated that he had not participated in the crime.

Ruiz’s 25-year sentence is an excellent example of what is called a “trial penalty,” when the defendants face a significantly longer sentence because they sent their case to court, the Innocence project said. 18% of obviously innocent and acquitted people pleaded guilty, most likely to avoid such punishment.

“I was a person who went to court to prove my innocence. But I was treated there as if I was already guilty when I first entered, ”Ruiz said.

While he was in prison, Ruiz and his family turned to lawyer William Tendy for help. At first, the lawyer thought he would spend several hours on this case, but he was convinced of Ruiz's innocence. As a result, he spent three years working on this matter in his spare time from work, without payment.

He found that in the building where the girl was raped, there was a man with a history of violence against women, which corresponded to the description of the actions of the person who attacked her. This man's name was Ronnie, and he lived opposite Brother Ruiz.

Tendy referred Ruiz’s case to the Innocence project, which, together with the Honesty Conviction Program of the New York County District Attorney's Office, organized an audit of all sexual assault material.

Each sample tested excluded Ruiz from the list of suspects, which led to his acquittal. “We now know that the police conducted an inadequate investigation, marked by inadequate identification procedures,” said Sema Saifi, senior staff attorney for Project Innocence. "It led to the conviction of a young man with limited resources who bravely insisted on his innocence."

It is noted that 69% of erroneous sentences overturned by DNA evidence in the United States are associated with the erroneous identification of witnesses, as in the case of Ruiz, according to the Innocence project. Although a law was passed in 2017 requiring the use of best practices in the field of witness identification, none of these requirements would have prevented any of the mistakes that made Ruiz imprisoned for a quarter of a century.

Ruiz hopes his case can help others who have been wrongly convicted.

While he was in prison, many tried to help him, finding cases similar to his that he could use to prove his innocence. But they couldn't find one. “I think now I can become one of the deeds or life stories in these books of laws that someone can use. Hope this helps them in their situations, ”Ruiz said. "It makes me happy."