FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After spending 26 years behind bars for a crime he always said he didn’t commit, Tavares Hutchinson walked out of Broward County Jail this week as a free man — the result of new evidence and a victim’s admission of mistaken identity that overturned a conviction dating back to 1999.
The 49-year-old South Florida man had been serving a sentence for armed robbery, accused of stealing a wedding ring and gold necklace more than two decades ago. But after years of fighting his case and partnering with the Innocence Project of Florida, Hutchinson finally saw the justice system recognize what he’d been saying since day one — that he was innocent.
“All I wanted was to step outside and breathe fresh air,” Hutchinson told NBC6 after his release. “It’s a relief that my innocence has finally been recognized, and I’m free. I was on edge until the moment I walked out of that jail.”
Decades of Imprisonment for a Crime He Didn’t Commit
Hutchinson was convicted in 1999 of an armed robbery involving a stolen gold necklace and ring, charges he vehemently denied from the start. According to court documents, prosecutors at the time built their case largely on eyewitness testimony from the victim, who later admitted to having misidentified him as the attacker…