Judge Grants Freedom To Inmate Who Was Released After Error, Then Imprisoned Again
DENVER (CBS4) - A Colorado judge on Tuesday granted freedom to a man who was released from prison in error many years early and then spent six years out of prison before being incarcerated again.
Judge Carlos A. Samour ordered that Rene Lima-Marin be released from the Colorado Department of Corrections.
"At the end of the day, the Court concludes that it would be utterly unjust to compel Lima-Marin, at this juncture, to serve the rest of his extremely long sentence," Samour wrote in his court order. "The government—not Lima-Marin, his family, the community, and society—should bear the brunt of the consequences of its conscience-shocking deliberate indifference."
A resolution asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to grant clemency to Lima-Marin was unanimously approved on the state Senate floor earlier this month.
Lima-Marin was convicted in 1998 for his role in two armed robberies and sentenced to 98 years in prison.
After a decade of serving time behind bars, Lima-Marin wound up being freed in error. It took the State of Colorado six years to realize that a clerical issue was behind Lima-Marin's early release and he was returned to his cell.
In the years he was free, Lima-Marin reset his life. He married his high school sweetheart, had children and found faith.
"This whole situation enlightened me. I became a man of God," Lima-Marin told CBS4 in a phone interview from prison.
