In 1998, Miguel Solorio was arrested for a drive-by shooting. On November 9th, 2023, Solorio was exonerated after spending 25 years in prison. I’m happy to have played a role in this exoneration.
The Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) was working on behalf of Solorio, with Conviction Integrity Unit of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on the other side of Solorio’s case. Dr. John Wixted, my Ph.D. advisor, was hired to write the expert report for the NCIP that explained the most recent scientific understandings eyewitness memory research, and why all of that information pointed toward Solorio’s innocence.
Having heard of this new scientific consensus, the District Attorney’s Office invited Dr. Wixted up to their office for a two-hour presentation on the relevant research. Dr. Wixted graciously allowed me to give that presentation instead of him. I presented for 1-hour and 45-minutes of that two-hour talk. (Pictured is me in front of the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles, Calif. after that presentation.)
Three weeks later on October 18th, 2023, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office cited that presentation (as an “interview) in their concession letter to the judge when advocating for the exoneration of Solorio. Additionally, they state that “a new documentable scientific consensus emerged in 2020 that a witness’s memory for a suspect should be tested only once, as even the test itself contaminates the witness’s memory.” I’m proud that they took the information from that presentation to heart. 
On November 9th, a judge ordered for the exoneration of Miguel Solorio.
He was released from prison four days later, and then declared factually innocent in December. The photo with Miguel and I was taken outside of the courtroom after his factual innocence hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. (Smiles all around!)
Read about the exoneration here by Associated Press or here in the press release by the Northern California Innocence Project. You can also find coverage by FOX, ABC and NBC.
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Live free, Miguel.