Man Wrongfully Convicted Wants Compensation From Utah
|
Reported by: Brian Mullahy
Friday, Nov 20, 2009 @07:47pm CST
 Harry Miller was arrested, tried and convicted of armed robbery, for wielding a knife and stealing a woman's purse outside a Utah convenience store.
He appealed, and before a new trial, court documents show prosecutors gave up on the case. Miller's conviction was reversed and he was released, but not before he had spent four years in prison.
Now, Miller wants the state to pay him for lost time.
"He sat down and told me the story, that he'd been arrested, he'd been imprisoned for four years, that he didn't do it," said Andrew McCullough, Miller's attorney.
In an interview with 2News Friday, McCullough said Miller suffered a stroke weeks before the crime. He was living in Louisiana, and a home health nurse visited him the day before the purse snatching.
The Utah Court of Appeals, in its latest ruling surrounding Miller, said the stroke "limited his physical mobility such that he could get around only with assistance."
The court said, according to testimony, "Miller had only slightly more than twenty-four hours to fly from his recovery bed in Louisiana to Utah in order to commit an act of physical violence against a complete stranger."
McCullough, who often represents sexually-oriented businesses, thinks Miller is due in the range of $200,000. The state, according to McCullough, has fought compensation.
A lawyer in the Utah Attorney General's Office, who has been a part of the case, was not available Friday.
Miller has had other trouble with the law. He was found guilty of assaulting a police offiicer in the late 1990s. A warrant has been issued for his arrest in connection with a drug charge, and a a woman recently sought a protective order against him.
He is said to be living in Arkansas, but visits Utah to see family. |
Printer Friendly Version
