Black teenager JaTyrone Hollis set free from death row after wrongful conviction

When JaTyrone Hollis was only 17 years old, he was charged with capital murder, convicted, and sent to death row in Dallas County, Texas. The problem? He didn’t commit the murder.

After a gun deal went bad, another 17-year-old, Isaiah Jones, was shot and killed while he sat in his car. Hollis maintained his innocence but made a false confession after he was coerced by the authorities. Surveillance footage confirmed that he was not in the car during the murder, supporting his innocence.

But Hollis still spent two-and-a-half years behind bars under a bail amount of $750,000 before his conviction was overturned and he was released. Hollis’s attorney, Ashkan Mehryari, said that the authorities “were already convinced they knew who did it and they were just looking for a confession, they should have been looking at the evidence.”

Instead of celebrating when he was released, Hollis felt differently, saying: “The moment I heard the verdict I couldn’t even celebrate, it was so overwhelming. I’m happy to be out but I just can’t enjoy it the way I’m supposed to enjoy it.”

Hollis’s acquittal is the first time a capital murder conviction has been overturned in Dallas County.