2-Decade Inmate Could Get New Trial
The Orange County public defender’s office has filed a motion for a new trial in the case of a man it says was wrongly convicted of murder nearly 20 years ago.
If the motion is granted, Dwayne McKinney, 39, who has already spent about two decades behind bars on a life-term sentence, will get a new chance to prove his innocence.
McKinney was convicted in 1982 of the murder of Burger King employee Walter Horace Bell, 19, during a robbery in Orange.
The public defender’s office, which has been building the new case for a year, says its investigation has uncovered evidence that another man committed the murder and robbery.
Moreover, it says, McKinney was convicted mainly on witness identification, but two of those witnesses have since expressed doubts about their testimony.
The motion was filed Wednesday. A hearing date has not yet been set.
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