DUNCAN —
A Tulsa County judge on Thursday formally vacated a Comanche man’s armed robbery and burglary convictions that wrongfully sent him to prison for 16 years.
But the judge did not declare Sedrick Courtney’s actual innocence, which could have made it easier for him to be compensated for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Oklahoma caps total state damages in such cases at $175,000.
David Loftis, an attorney for the Innocence Project representing Courtney, said it would have been better for the judge to have declared actual innocence.
But he said the ruling does not necessarily preclude Courtney from being compensated.
“He has faith he will be compensated,” said Loftis. He characterized the ruling in that regard as a “little bump in the road.”
Courtney has always maintained his innocence and said Thursday he was not surprised by the ruling.
“We’ve been dealing with the courts of Oklahoma for 16 or 17 years, so I was not surprised or intent on anything happening today, but maybe three or four years from now we can get it worked out,” he said. “I’m not surprised or upset or frustrated.”
Courtney was convicted in 1996 and spent 16 years in prison before he was paroled in June 2011.
He has always maintained his innocence.
Based on new DNA testing, the Tulsa judge – with consent from prosecutors – negated the conviction this past July.
That meant no further probation obligations for Courtney and wiped the felony from his record.
After he was paroled last year, Courtney met Tina Benedict of Comanche and they married last March. The couple lives in Comanche with Tina’s young son, Elijah.
The New York-based Innocence Project, which seeks to free wrongfully convicted inmates from prison, was instrumental in finding evidence that had earlier been declared destroyed in Courtney’s case and having it tested for DNA.
Courtney was convicted in the burglary and robbery of Shemita Greer, who was home in Tulsa on April 6, 1995 when two men wearing ski masks kicked in her apartment door and attacked her at gunpoint.
Greer was robbed and severely beaten, and said Courtney was one of the intruders. She said she recognized his voice.
DNA testing available at the time on hairs that were found on the ski masks were inconclusive. But a lab specialist said one of the hairs was similar to one from Courtney’s head.
Tulsa authorities maintained for years that evidence used at trial had been destroyed, but the ski masks were relocated last year and new DNA tests indicated that no hairs from the masks matched those of Courtney.
Courtney said the judge told him Thursday that he would not be the judge to actually say he was innocent.
“I can understand his position because he works for the state and doesn’t want to be the judge to say, ‘We made a mistake so pay the guy,’” Courtney said.
Courtney said he is pleased to have his wife and a child and a new job, but would not give up the fight to be compensated for his years in prison.
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