FRESNO, CA (November 7, 2007) – Presiding Superior Court Judge Gary D. Hoff today reversed the murder conviction of Armando Ortiz, a Fresno teenager wrongfully convicted of the 2001 brutal robbery and murder of a pregnant convenience store clerk in Reedley, Calif.
Ortiz, who was 16 at the time of the murder, was tried as an adult and convicted on two counts of first degree murder despite the lack of physical evidence linking him to the murder scene. Ortiz had always maintained his innocence, testifying at the trial that he had never been to Reedley.
The Northern California Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic which is dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted under the direction of Linda Starr and Cookie Ridolfi, represented Ortiz.
"We were convinced of Mr. Ortiz’s innocence from the beginning. Our students at Santa Clara School of Law have been working tirelessly to ensure that his conviction be overturned. We are thrilled the judge recognized the injustice of this case," said Cookie Ridolfi, executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project. "Everyone suffers when the wrong person is convicted. Mr. Ortiz was deprived of his freedom before he had a chance to reach adulthood, and a brutal murderer remains at large," Ridolfi added.
The Innocence Project took Mr. Ortiz’s case after learning from his appellate attorney that there were numerous alibi witnesses who had never been interviewed for the trial. Linda Starr, legal director, Northern California Innocence Project, and Jill Kent, supervising attorney, and a team of law students found that despite the fact that Mr. Ortiz’s trial attorney, Ernest Kinney, had been informed about the alibi witnesses, Kinney never contacted them. These witnesses would have testified that Mr. Ortiz was with them at the time of the murder.
By demonstrating that Mr. Ortiz’s trial attorney prejudiced Mr. Ortiz’s right to a fair trial by failing to investigate the case, Judge Hoff granted the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Fresno County District Attorney must now decide whether to retry Ortiz for the offense. In granting the petition, Judge Hoff also announced that he is reporting Kinney to the State Bar for disciplinary action.
This is the seventh exoneration secured by the Northern California Innocence Project since its inception in 2001. The Northern California Innocence Project operates out of Santa Clara University’s School of Law.
