Judge vacates life sentence of wrongfully convicted man

By FREIDA FRISARO
Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A judge in Miami has vacated the life sentence of a 55-year-old Black man who prosecutors said was wrongfully convicted because of mistaken identity in 1991. Thomas “Jay” Raynard James said he felt “real good” as he left the courtroom Wednesday morning, flanked by his attorneys and family. He was convicted of the 1990 death of Francis McKinnon, largely on the identification by an eyewitness who told jurors she watched him gun down her stepfather during a robbery in his Coconut Grove apartment. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle filed a 90-page motion seeking to have the sentence vacated after years of unsuccessful reviews of the case.