Gujarati-origin Sonny Bharadia was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2003 in a case of burglary and sexual assault which took place in a town which he had never visited. 22 years later, Bharadia was exonerated fully on May 16 in a case of justice delayed. in 2001, the incident took place in Thunderbolt and Sonny Bhaeadia was 250 miles away in Lithonia. Sonny’s car was at the crime spot and that took away decades from Sonny’s life as he could not convince the justice system that he had already reported to the police that his car was stolen. Strling Flint, an acquaintance of Sonny, had stolen the car and threatened to kill Sonny, which Sonny reported to the police. The victim also identified Sterling Flint as he possible attacker. But when the victim was not shown Flint’s photo and was shown Sonny’s photo, the victim identified Sonny as the attacker. Both Sonny and Sterling were charged; Sterling pleaded guilty to stealing, but on the condition that he wouldn’t be prosecuted for a sex crime. Sterling testified against Bharadia and Bharadia was convicted.
DNA matching technology did not exist at that time
Georgia Innocence Project, which took up Sonny’s case, claimed that when the trial began, there was no technology to match DNA evidence. The woman who was assaulted reported that the assailant wore gloves — the same ones that were found from Sterling. “However, several years later, when Georgia Innocence Project took on Sonny’s case, DNA testing technology had advanced to the point that “touch” DNA testing could be performed on the gloves. Using DNA from skin cells left on the gloves, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was able to extract a DNA profile and compare it with a sample obtained from Sonny. The DNA didn’t match. It did, however, match someone else: Sterling Flint,” it said. But it was already 2022 and a new hearing was scheduled in 2023. In 2024, a habeas relief was granted to Sonny and in 2025, he was fully exonerated. Bharadia said he’s grateful for walking free; he waited years for this day. He was in his twenties when he went to jail, and spent his 30s and 40s in jail, as he’s going to be 51 soon. Though his family has Indian origin, he has never visited India and his parents were also not born in India. After his arrest, his family members drifted away and now he is starting afresh with his mother.
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