Chicago man has murder conviction overturned after nine years behind bars when key witness who put him away admitted that he is BLIND

A Chicago man spent close to a decade behind bars for murder - thanks to the eyewitness testimony of a witness who's since admitted to being blind.  

Darien Harris was locked up in 2011 aged 18, just a week before he graduated high school, and accused of shooting dead a man at a Chicago petrol station.

He now has a chance at freedom after star witness Dexter Saffold was revealed to be legally blind, and will get a new trial with his conviction vacated. 

Harris, now 30, was jailed for 76 years for the murder of Rondell Moore after a trial in 2014 despite there being no physical evidence tying him to the crime.

All prosecutors had was Saffold's claim that Harris was the man seen in CCTV from the BP station in South Side Chicago, who then fired the fatal shots off-camera.

'I was trying to tell the people all this time he's lying... and here's what came about. He was really lying,' Harris told CBS.

Saffold was asked about his eyesight during the trial and told the court he had no vision problems and could see clearly.

But in a 2019 CBS interview he admitted he was legally blind, though still insisted he saw Harris pull the trigger.

'I got glaucoma due to an eye disease,' he said.

'They didn't do anything wrong, because they didn't know. I didn't have to tell nobody about my medical history.' 

Saffold also filed a federal disability lawsuit in 2003 in which two doctors confirmed he was legally blind.

Then in an interview with Harris' lawyers in 2018, he claimed he told prosecutors before the trial that he had glaucoma and was legally blind.

Harris always maintained his innocence, claiming he was at home watching LeBron James play in the NBA finals between Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks at the time of the shooting.

Cook County Judge Diana Kenworthy vacated Harris' conviction and sentence last week, saying simply: 'So we are going to start over.'

Harris will be retried on charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.

The judge, citing the serious nature of the charges, declined to free Harris while he awaits his new trial.

Shackled at the ankles and dressed in blue jail garb, Harris did not speak during the brief court hearing. 

He waved to his wife and mother and an uncle seated in the courtroom gallery before being led back to jail.  

Nakesha Harris, Darien's mother told reporters after the hearing she had hoped her son would be released without being retried. 

'They're wasting taxpayers' hard-earned money,' she said. 

'We're retrying a case with no physical (or) DNA evidence. All the witnesses recanted (and) changed stories, and the judge based his verdict off the testimony of a blind man.' 

The defendant's wife, Jessica Harris, told reporters: 'I thought I would have him home for the holidays, so it is in a way disappointing to see that they're retrying him.'

'But I'm going to keep a positive attitude that he'll be home soon.'

Rondell Moore, 23, pulled into a BP gas station in Woodlawn because of car troubles after 8pm on June 7, 2011.

Moore was assisted by a local mechanic who arrived at the station on his bike shortly afterward.

Moore was shot three times and died in a nearby parking lot as he attempted to flee and the 51-year-old mechanic survived bullet wounds to his back and arm. 

The station's surveillance system did not capture the shooting. 

But prosecutors said the video did show an individual walking away from a black Lexus and around the gas station building toward the area where the shooting occurred, then running away shortly afterward.

The video showed a man whose thin build and short hairstyle generally fit Harris, but the suspect's face was not visible.

Saffold picked Harris out of a police lineup and also identified him in court during the trial.

Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford said he based his ruling primarily on Saffold's testimony. 

Prosecutors pledged to pursue another trial and maintain they have credible evidence from other eyewitnesses that point to Harris' guilt.

Harris lawyer' Myerscough-Mueller alleged police misconduct played a role in those identifications. 

Harris is due back in court on December 19, when a trial date may be set.