A Michigan man filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a car rental company that failed to produce a receipt that would have proved his innocence after he was wrongly convicted for the 2011 murder.
Herbert Alford was wrongly imprisoned for five years after being found guilty of killing 23-year-old Michael Adams.
According to prosecutors, Alford Adams shot Behind a 50-pound bag of marijuana.
But Alford, who rented a car from the Hertz location at an airport in Lansing, Michigan at the time of Adams’ murder, tried to obtain records of the transaction during his trial in 2015 – though the rental agency said it provided Was unable to obtain the receipt at that time.
Alford was later convicted of murder a year later in 2016.
“When we were unable to find the historical rental record in 2011 when it was requested in 2015, we continued our good faith efforts to find it,” said spokeswoman Lauren Lister.
“With advances in data search over the coming years, we were able to locate rental records in 2018 and provide it immediately.”
Alford’s attorney, Jamie White, said his client would not have been convicted if Hertz were able to produce the receipt on time.
“There is no question that he avoided going to jail that he had prepared this document,” White says.
Alford’s case against Hertz has been put on hold by the company, which is hoping to bounce back from bankruptcy.
Alford has said that he will seek financial compensation.
With post wires
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