A court fight is continuing for a San Quentin prisoner who insists he was imprisoned based on faulty eyewitness testimony. The California Innocence Project agrees, and is working to set him free.
Guy Miles has served 13 years of a 75 years to life sentence for two counts of robbery, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and a gang enhancement.
“The basics of my case came down to (stranger) eyewitness testimony and they were all wrong,” Miles said in an interview. His attorney said, “Stranger eyewitness identifications are the single leading cause of wrongful convictions in the world.”
“I was sentenced to life because of my prison priors, not because I broke any laws. I’m innocent,” said Miles.
The place that was robbed was located in Fullerton, Miles said. “But when these crimes happened, I was living in Las Vegas, Nevada.”
Miles said he presented an alibi of misidentification defense to the jury. His defense attorney, Frank Williams, called six witnesses to testify.
Gloria Perry testified that they saw Miles the night before the crime and the day of the crime.
“There were actually eight witnesses,” said Alissa Bjerkhoel, Miles’ attorney from the Innocence Project. “The judge refused to allow all of them to testify. He said their testimony would be cumulative and would be too long.”
“First of all, Judge (Frank) Fasel was wrong,” said Bjerkhoel, who has been practicing law since 2008. “I don’t care how long it is. I think everyone should be able to testify.”
“We’ve got a witness who cannot identify Miles,” said Bjerkhoel. “That was a red flag for us that this might be a wrongful conviction.”
In a written declaration, Bernard Teamer reported he, Jason Steward and Harold Bailey robbed Fidelity Financial, which is the crime for which Miles was convicted.
Bailey said he contacted the Innocence Project to bring truth to Mile’s non-involvement in the crime.
“This is the biggest thing I’ve done since my recovery,” Bailey said. “Mr. Miles is 100 percent innocent of this crime.”
In April, Bjerkhoel and two other lawyers will be conducting an Innocence March for Miles.
Their plans are to organize a walk from San Diego to Sacramento carrying a clemency petition that they intend to present to Governor Brown.
“I’m going to fight to my dying day to get Guy out,” said Bjerkhoel.
