We are fulfilling that responsibility
with regards to Thomas Maynard James.
We are going to undo what is a
wrongful conviction of an innocent man.
Today we are undoing an injustice
which was an unintentional wrong.
We are going to ask the courts
our Court of law to give Mr.
James the freedom he deserves.
And his mom's gonna be standing right by him.
I want to again thank my team
for helping do this and we are
going to be filing in court.
A post conviction relief.
And to vacate his judgment
and his sentence and to set
him free and his family free.
Mom, he's free.
Hopefully the courts will grant
you the freedom that you've been
looking for for so many years.
Again.
I want to convey my
condolences to the MacKinnon
family. All of us. Do I speak
for all of us here, including
the James family? I'm sure their
heart breaks and I break for them.
We all do. Because what they believed
was a just result for the loss of their
loved one has been stolen from them.
They felt they had received justice
for decades and now it's gone.
With me, as I said,
are many of the people who worked
hard and contributed and led to
this decision to ask the courts to
release Thomas James from prison.
Again, I introduced the team
of my justice project,
but I also want to introduce the
chief of my Investigative Division.
There he is Emiliano Tamayo,
and behind him investigator Passmore.
And Eunice Cooper is not here.
But these men went all over the state of
Florida and into correctional facilities,
and met with inmates they've met with Mr.
James, as has our team here.
And they spent countless hours,
countless infant.
Reviewing reports and evidence,
tracking down and interviewing
critical witnesses and submitting and
resubmitting evidence to the laboratory
for DNA and fingerprint analysis.
I want to just stop
and thank you gentlemen and Miss Eunice
Cooper for your dedication. And what
you have done and doing something so right.
All of our efforts were to try to
reconstruct the events that happened in 1990.
After a thorough investigation of all
the elements related to this homicide,
you will all see we have outlined it
in great detail in our motion which we
are going to walk across the street
and present to the courts shortly.
There are. There are however,
in that large motion,
a few notable facts that I just want
to bring to your attention as to the
theory that Thomas James was arrested
in a case of mistaken identity.
This theory was never really true,
because the second Tommy James
was already in custody the day
the crime occurred.
This case has gone through
numerous by the way.
Appellate reviews.
By the circuit courts and
by our appellate courts.
And I believe there been something like
10 post conviction reviews and all.
The Innocence Project had twice reviewed
this case over the last 20 years,
and there was a private detective
who also reviewed this case.
None were successful,
unfortunately, in finding Mr.
James Innocent before.
We got involved
before Natalie figures got involved
and Keoni McGee. We conducted an extensive
and comprehensive review of all the
evidence and the witnesses in this case
and you will see that as outlined there,
we had to resurrect from archives.
Over 10,000 pages of documents
from the criminal courts,
all the various state agencies we
took sworn statements of important
individuals and witnesses to ensure a
thorough investigation was conducted.
We had to obtain files from the innocent
project of Florida to understand why,
after so many years of review,
the Innocence Project of Florida could
not accept this matter for litigation.
Or make a presentation.
To law enforcement agencies such as ours,
their files contain thousands
of pages of documents,
including the Public Defenders Office,
their file.
On this case.
We also sought to obtain
new evidence such as DNA,
and we submitted fingerprints for
reanalysis to fully clarify every
possible source and information.
Given all that has been gathered
and in the light of many recent
findings about eyewitness testimony,
tough questions have arisen about
this conviction, for example.
Dorothy Walton's identification
at trial was very strong.
She said I'm positive of it.
I'll never forget his face.
It's important to understand that the
state's case back in 1991 rested largely
upon that positive identification of
Thomas Maynard James by Dorothy Walton
as the gunman inside the apartment.
There was really no other evidence.
Of his guilt.
In fact.
There was no physical evidence
that we could find tying anyone
to the crime this past fall.
Miss Walton said she had
some possible concerns.
And then very recently,
as recently as just a few weeks ago.
She told Miss figures and
us that now she believes her
identification was a mistake.