An American 61-year-old spent nearly twenty years in prison for the theft of a postal money order of around 550 dollars (477 euros). He was finally released on Monday after being able to prove that he was not responsible for the crime, as reported by NBC News.
Prosecutors reviewed his claims and concluded that he was not involved, leading a judge in Brooklyn to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case.
A stolen postal money order
“It took twenty years, but they said they had corrected their mistake. That’s all that matters,” said Kenneth Windley in court, as cited by the Associated Press. It all started on April 1, 2005, with a 70-year-old man assaulted by two individuals. The thieves had stolen two unsigned money orders, one being 542 dollars. The convicted man was arrested for using this money order to purchase a stove for his mother.
From the beginning, he denied any involvement in the theft. He claimed to have bought the money order for 400 dollars from two acquaintances outside the appliance store. Kenneth Windley had never used a money order before and was unaware that it could have been stolen. “He was deceived,” summarized one of his lawyers, David Shanies. Despite these explanations during the 2007 trial, the jury sentenced the New Yorker to twenty years to life in prison, due to his prior convictions. His appeals were later rejected.
Cleared by the two thieves
Kenneth Windley was ultimately cleared thanks to the two thieves. They were located by a friend with the help of private detectives, based on the information provided by the sixty-year-old. The two men were then persuaded to testify under oath and during interviews with representatives from the prosecutor’s office. Their confessions were deemed “convincing.” These two individuals are currently serving prison sentences for similar thefts.
Thus, prosecutors believed that the identity of these men and their past theft records would have certainly made the jury reasonably doubt the guilt of the sixty-year-old if they had been aware of it. Now exonerated, Kenneth Windley was able to leave prison on Monday to reunite with his family. Without apparent bitterness, he simply said: “I will just move on.”
