Wrongfully Convicted Yutico Briley Freed After Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams Supports His Exoneration
New Orleans, La – Family members and advocates of Yutico Briley achieved a long-awaited victory yesterday when his convictions out of Orleans Parish were vacated by Judge Harris, who described the case as “appalling.” Today, Yutico was released from Elayn Hunt Correctional Center a free man after almost a decade of incarceration for an armed robbery he did not commit. Attorneys working for the new District Attorney Jason Williams as well as newly-elected Judge Angel Harris agreed Mr. Briley was wrongfully convicted under their predecessors, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and Judge Franz Ziblich, and offered Yutico their apologies on behalf of the State.
As Yutico’s counsel Lara Bazelon described at Thursday’s hearing, the State’s evidence at his 2013 trial consisted of a single cross-racial “show-up” identification by the victim more than 20 hours after the robbery occurred and during which Yutico was already in handcuffs and surrounded by police officers. The victim of the robbery, who was white, had seen his Black assailant the night before for approximately two minutes and in the dark. In fact, Yutico was at a hotel eight miles away at the time of the crime and was accompanied by a witness, but his lawyers back then did not interview or even reach out to that witness to establish his alibi or get the phone records that would have corroborated his location.
Yutico was represented by counsel and law students from the Racial Justice Clinic at the University of San Francisco School of Law who have been working on his case for over two years. Lara Bazelon, Director of the Clinic and Yutico’s lead counsel, stated, “We are thankful, relieved, and profoundly grateful to the Orleans Parish DA and Judge Angel Harris, who are showing by their actions that this is a new day in New Orleans where the racism and systemic breakdowns that caused this tragedy can be openly acknowledged and rectified.” Yutico is also represented by Nishi Kumar from the Promise of Justice Initiative and Robert Nelson of the law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP.
Family and advocates are overjoyed to have Yutico home with them. He has been wrongfully incarcerated since he was a nineteen-year-old teenager. He is now twenty-seven and eager to make up for the many years with family and friends that were stolen from him and focus on his future plans. Yutico is a survivor of childhood leukemia and is also grateful to be in recovery from COVID-19 after contracting it in prison.
Media Contact:
Nishi Kumar
504-529-5955
In the Racial Justice Clinic at the University of San Francisco School of Law, law students represent clients who have been affected by racial discrimination. Projects include overturning wrongful convictions, proving that falsely arrested clients are factually innocent to clean up their records, challenging California’s inequitable bail system, and assisting college students at risk of expulsion.
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a 100-attorney law firm with offices in San Francisco, New York, Nashville, and Munich. We are among the largest law firms in the United States that only represent plaintiffs. We are driven by a strong and principled sense of social responsibility. We are committed to achieving justice for investors, consumers, employees, patients, and business owners; promoting safer products and fair competition; protecting our environment; assisting individuals blow the whistle on fraud; safeguarding the rights of patent and copyright holders; ensuring our right to privacy is preserved; and upholding the civil rights of citizens worldwide.