In Re Cruz

Efren Cruz was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 1997. At his trial, Cruz denied firing the fatal shots. Although he was corroborated by at least one other witness, an independent witness identified Cruz as the “shooter” and tests revealed the presence of gunshot residue on his hands. We affirmed his conviction on appeal, but this was the beginning of the story, not its end. Cruz challenged his conviction by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus before the same judge who presided at the trial. Cruz asserted that newly discovered evidence establishes that he was not the shooter.

At the hearing on the habeas corpus petition, Cruz offered evidence that it was one Gerardo Reyes, and not he, who was the shooter. Reyes’s involvement in the shooting was known at the time of trial, but hearsay testimony by Cruz’s girlfriend that Reyes fired the shots was rejected. The newly discovered evidence offered in the habeas corpus proceeding, however, was testimony from an informant and a recorded statement from Reyes himself in which he admitted that he was the shooter.

During the habeas corpus hearing, Cruz convinced the trial court that Reyes, not Cruz, fired the…