Florida put an innocent man in prison for 30 years because of his name and false ID

30 years.

In 1991, 23-year-old Thomas James was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Thirty years later, after a personal injury lawyer improbably took up his case out of a sense of “legal duty,” he’s been freed, ABC News reports.

There was never any physical evidence tying James to the murder scene. Finger prints found there didn’t match his. The case against him was based on witnesses telling officers the robbery and murder “was committed by a man named "Thomas James" or "Tommy James." A witness then testified that they had seen him commit the crime.

"The list of things that I missed out on is long. For me, one thing that would mention is that I lost a lot of family, a lot of friends… they went to their grave with me still sitting in prison for a crime I didn't commit," James said.

"Injustice to anyone is injustice to everyone. So when people such as myself are crying out don't just brush them off and automatically call them guilty.”

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, since 1989, 835 people have been found innocent of crimes they were convicted of because of mistaken witness identification.

The Innocence Project estimates that 69% of DNA exonerations have involved eyewitness misidentification.

Memory is extremely flawed. Research suggests memories begin to transform into falsehoods mere hours after an event.

The Innocence Project runs an experiment that shows just how flawed memory is.

Which one is the penny?