A man who spent 21 years in prison over the fatal drive-by shooting of two people in Bakersfield was released on Thursday, according to his attorneys.
Dwight Jones, now 41, was one of several individuals arrested in connection with the shooting in 1999. He reportedly told police at the time had had been at home when the shooting occurred. His lawyers said critical witnesses were not called to attest to Jones' alibi at trial, however, and he was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Jones was freed from the Lerdo Pretrial Facility in Kern County thanks in large part to the efforts of the Project for the Innocent at Los Angeles' Loyola Law School.
Law students and clinical attorneys working with the Project for the Innocent obtained new statements from witnesses who said they saw Jones at home at the time of the shooting. Additional DNA testing showed he had not left a palm print on a vehicle used in the crime.
The program's executive director, Paula Mitchell, told KNX the effort took four years of hard work and interviews with dozens of witnesses.
"We were successful in persuading both the court and the district attorney's office that the outcome in this case was not only horribly unjust but it needed to be remedied right away," she said.
The Kern County District Attorney's Office offered Jones the option of pleading to reduce charges without formally acknowledging guilt. Jones accepted that offer on Sept. 2, and was resentenced to time served in prison after pleading "no contest" to two counts of voluntary manslaughter.
The D.A.'s office insisted despite his release, Jones was not found "factually innocent," and maintains the conviction was proper. However, "doing a trial 22 years after the fact was going to be problematic," Assistant D.A. Joseph Kinzel told KGET.
Jones, who has always maintained his innocence, was effusive in his praise for the law students and others who worked on the case.
"Bet law school in the country, hands down," he said.