In 1998, Messiah Johnson was charged with taking part in an armed robbery in Norfolk. The victim identified him, even though the robber was wearing a mask.
“The main witness said that he was driving down the street at 35 to 40 miles an hour in the middle of the night, looked out his window and said he saw the person who robbed him,” he recalls.
A judge in the case said police did a shoddy job of investigating, and the local prosecutor offered a deal. Johnson’s lawyer advised him to plead guilty and accept…