Man Exonerated 32 Years After Arrest In San Francisco Killing

SAN FRANCISCO — A man convicted of murdering his friend in San Francisco more than 30 years ago has been exonerated in a case that authorities said highlighted many issues within the criminal justice system, such as the lengthy amount of time it takes to undo a wrongful conviction , as well as problems associated with using incentivized testimony and the unreliability of cross-racial identifications.

Joaquin Ciria, now 61, was convicted of murder in 1991 in the shooting death a year prior of Felix Bastarrica. At the time, San Francisco police investigators honed in on Ciria as the shooter based on street rumors, questionable witness accounts and statements by the teen getaway driver, George Varela, who knew Ciria and tested — in exchange for immunity — that he drove Ciria to and from the scene.

But Ciria maintained his innocence from the beginning, and no physical evidence linked him to the crime, prosecutors now say. Furthermore, jurors heard no evidence of an alternate suspect and no evidence that Ciria had an alibi, even though two witnesses were willing to testify that he had an alibi.

After an exhaustive review by the San Francisco district attorney’s newly created Innocence Commission, prosecutors on Monday said new evidence presented by Ciria’s attorneys provided what they called “convincing proof” that Ciria was wrongly convicted based on false testimony. It was the first case reviewed by the Innocence Commission since its formation.

“Our office is proud of and grateful for the work of the Innocence Commission in rectifying the wrongful conviction of Mr. Ciria,” Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco district attorney, said in a statement. “Wrongful convictions continue to plague our justice system at great cost to the families, victims, and suspected persons whose lives are devastated when the wrong person is convicted of a crime.”

Boudin thanked the court for correcting what he called a “miscarriage of justice.”

At his trial, jurors heard three eyewitnesses identify Ciria as the shooter. But two witnesses were strangers who made what prosecutors called “cross-racial identifications” at long distances with poor lighting during the late-night shooting.

Furthermore, police placed extreme pressure on the teen getaway driver, a key witness in the case, to identify Ciria as the shooter or face charges himself, authorities said.

Another eyewitness, who was the victim’s best friend and knew all the parties involved, also saw the shooting and identified a different shooter. That witness didn’t testify at Ciria’s trial.

Other witnesses confirmed details that support the new eyewitness’s story, including descriptions of the shooter initially provided by the stranger eyewitnesses that more closely match the alternate suspect than Ciria did.

The driver’s sister and a close family friend said Varela has since admitted Ciria was not the shooter and that he lied at the trial.

Lara Bazelon, chair of the Innocence Commission, said in a statement that the district attorney has a duty to correct what she called intolerable violations when a conviction is a “perversion of justice.”

After the conviction was vacated Monday — 32 years after Ciria’s arrest — prosecutors dismissed the case and Ciria was freed.

Since the National Registry of Exonerations began tracking wrongful convictions in 1989, there have been more than 270 known wrongful convictions in California, prosecutors said. Studies show key contributing factors to these wrongful convictions include mistaken eyewitness identification, false testimony and official misconduct.

Paige Kaneb, supervising attorney at the Northern California Innocence Project, who represented Ciria, said his case — which contained all three contributing factors — highlighted many issues with the criminal justice system and was an example of how people of color aren’t afforded the presumption of innocence.

“Joaquin highlights the indominable nature of the human spirit–32 years were stolen from him and yet he has kept his big heart and easy smile and is full of joy as he looks forward to starting his life again,” she said.