Shady informant and prosecutor misconduct landed him in prison. Now he walks free
LOS ANGELES - As soon as Samuel Bonner entered the Long Beach courtroom with his wrists chained to his waist, the judge made a simple - yet for Bonner, unprecedented - request: Could the bailiff please remove his shackles?
This is the moment, Bonner thought. This is it.
It was the closest thing to freedom he had felt in 37 years. The hour or so that followed was just as remarkable for the man who always insisted he was innocent of murder.
The hearing that day in July was spurred by the approval of California's new felony murder law, which retroactively limits who can be charged with murder to those accused of actually killing or intending to kill. In Los Angeles County, Bonner and more than 1,600 others have sought relief, and about 10 convictions have been undone to date.
But the reprieve for Bonner that day went far beyond that. Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal declined to resentence him and instead ordered him released, citing misconduct by a prosecutor who used a shady jailhouse informant. Besides the informant's testimony, he said, there was little linking Bonner to the crime at all.
"That the death penalty was sought against someone based on testimony that was known to be false is horrifying and shocks
