LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A man who spent 38 years behind bars for the 1983 abduction and murder of a woman in Inglewood was declared factually innocent Wednesday of the crime.
Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan noted that the request for a finding of factual innocence for Maurice Hastings came in a motion jointly filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles Innocence Project.
"... I find him factually innocent," the judge said during the brief hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
Hastings, 69, was released from custody last October after his conviction was vacated for the abduction, sexual assault, and slaying of 30-year-old Roberta Wydermyer, along with the attempted murder of Wydermyer's husband, Billy Ray, and his friend, George Pinson.
Martha Carrillo, deputy in charge of the District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit, told Hastings that he deserved to hear that he is factually innocent in a courtroom, which comes with a "long overdue apology."