Sydney Holmes has been in jail since 1988 for a crime he didn’t commit
With his family waiting, Sydney Holmes was released from the Broward County Jail, to hugs and tears. Initially being convicted to 400 consecutive years behind bars, Sydney had already served 34 of those years. When asked what it was like to be free, he simply replied ” Words cannot explain how it feels.”
So the question is, how does this happen? How does a man served 34 years before those who put him in jail realize they have the wrong person? Let’s take a look at the back story.
Sydney Holmes was 23 years old in 1988. In August of that year a burglary took place in which Sydney was accused of being the get-a-way driver for those responsible. Someone had simply seen a car driving around and told police that they saw that car coming from the scene of the crime, and that car happened to be Sydney’s car. Assuming he was racially profiled back in that day, without any real hard evidence linking him to the crime itself.
The only thing in the end the courts could offer was an apology. An apology in exchange for 34 years of a mans life. That is wrong in itself. We here wish him all the best in the life that is ahead of this man.
“I can’t apologize for the past wrongs, what a prior or previous administration’s done or what law enforcement did,” All I can do is what I control going forward, and that was to right a wrong and to really make him right, and potentially begin the process of making him whole again.”
Harold F. Pryor.
