Fernando Bermudez lost over 18 years in New York state maximum security prisons following his wrongful conviction of murder in 1991. Mr. Bermudez was proven innocent in late 2009 with help from pro bono attorneys in DC, Jersey and New York. Mr. Bermudez's exoneration makes him the first Latin American male in New York State legal history exonerated on actual innocence grounds.

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Noelle: So, you know, one of the main methods that led to your wrongful conviction was that eyewitness identification, or really rather misidentification, we should say, and according to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions. And in fact, nationwide, about 75% of wrongful convictions that were overturned because of DNA testing involved erroneous identifications from victims or witnesses. And I can't even imagine experiencing that. All those emotions you must have, you know, having to go through that, knowing that you're innocent, still being a part of the system, people not wanting to hear you, give you a shot to present this evidence that would prove your innocence. So can you speak to some of the issues around witness identification and exactly how it impacted your case?

Fernando: Absolutely. Well, eyewitness identification is certainly a leading cause of wrongful convictions. You know, we have a total today of over 2,600 documented cases since cases began getting documented in 1989. And that's just the ones that are documented. That's nearly 2,700 cases of men and women and over 24,000 lost years since then. But in my situation, that began my problem because a young lady upon the incident was allowed to be in this room with other teenage witnesses and she took my picture and says--hey, look at this guy! And then she started sharing my picture. That became a contaminating, psychological instant play in which the witnesses then reinforced by saying--oh, yes, and sharing the picture. It reinforced their idea that they may or may not have had the right person, allowing them to proceed to the next step, which grew worse through the contamination of that when I was placed in a lineup, I was told to sit down to hide my height and weight difference. So the identification procedure is being skewed already. Then I'm also placed in a mug shot book and I'm directed as being the subject of the investigation, meaning--tell us who you think is responsible because he's in there. They already had seen me in other photographic identifications. It was a foregone conclusion they were aiming at. So this caused my problem. It really began the problem that made the situation grow worse from that. I mean, it could begin simple enough and honest enough that way, but the corrupting factor grows deeper if then police and prosecutors have a way of exacerbating that potentially wrongful conviction. And that's what happened to me.

Miranda: Thankfully, exonerations are increasing throughout the country. Still not at a pace that they need to, right? My guess is that 2,700 is a gross underestimate, you know, of people that are in prison for crimes they didn't commit. So according to the National Registry of Exonerations, there are a record number of 143 exonerations in 2019 alone. And the total since 1989, until end of 2019 was 2,556. So just like you said, so we know that wrongfully convicted persons they, like you, lose years of their life behind bars. And Research also shows that wrongfully convicted people are incarcerated for an average of 13.3 years before even being exonerated. And here you were sentenced to 23 years to life. Ultimately, you served 18 years, but still 18 years of your life, right? Just gone.

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