Wrongfully Convicted man Sues New York for $30 Million

Feb. 23, 2011— -- Fernando Bermudez's life story is a tale of injustice and inspiration. He was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 18 years in prison, sustained by his belief that the truth would prevail.

Over a year after his exoneration, Bermudez, 41, has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the city and state of New York.

"We want to hold the city of New York, its detectives and the New York County District Attorney's Office accountable for the continued injustice dealt to Fernando. They violated his 4th Amendment rights for an unlawful arrest and 14th Amendment rights for due process of law," said his attorney Michael S. Lamonsoff.

Now a free man, Bermudez is determined to bring justice to the judicial system that took nearly two decades of his life. "I want the world to know what happened to me so this doesn't happen to anyone else," he said at the press conference.

Bermudez was 22 when he was convicted in 1991 of murdering a teen outside of a nightclub in New York City. The most damning evidence against him: His photo was misidentified by five teenage witnesses.

The youngsters who put him behind bars later recanted their testimony, however, saying that prosecutors and police had pressured them into pinning Bermudez as the killer.

There was no evidence to prove such allegations.

But at the very least, his pro-bono attorney, Mary Ann Di Bari, said, "The trial was so lopsided. The stories the witnesses gave did not make sense, they were inconsistent with one another."

With no DNA evidence to prove his innocence, Bermudez's fate was left in the hands of the eyewitnesses. His legitimate alibi was too little to spare him a sentence of 23 years to life, the bulk of which he served upstate at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill.

Eyewitness testimonies are the primary source of evidence in cases such as his that lack forensic evidence. Eyewitness misidentifications are the number one cause of wrongful convictions in the United States, according to the New York City-based Innocence Project.