Innocence Blog

Federal judge: Don’t deport exoneree

Posted: October 10, 2008 4:04 pm

Ulysses Rodriguez Charles served 17 years in Massachusetts prison for a rape and robbery he didn’t commit before he was exonerated in 2001. In June, he was arrested and jailed pending deportation to his native Trinidad, despite his pending civil rights lawsuit against the Boston Police Department. His mother, who lives in Boston, said authorities were timing the deportation proceedings to disrupt his lawsuit.

"The whole deportation thing is a cooked-up business to deny him his rights to get what's due to him," Manzoni, 78, of the South End, said later. She said Charles lost nearly two decades of his life "for a crime he never dreamed to do, and now when it's time to get his justice, they put him behind bars again."

A federal district judge demanded that immigration authorities at least delay the deportation until after the trial, but officials said the judge didn’t have jurisdiction. They also said there was no connection between the immigration issue and the civil suit.

Read the full story here. (Boston Globe, 10/09/08)

Tags: Ulysses Rodriguez Charles