Sidney Holmes, a South Florida man sentenced to 400 years in prison, has been found not guilty and compensated with $1.7 million (N2.5 billion) after he had already spent 34 years behind bars.

Many years after Holmes' guilty verdict, Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor investigated the case as part of his office’s Conviction Review Unit, and found out the now 59-year-old is innocent.

NBC Miami reported that Holmes was wrongly convicted of being the getaway driver in a 1988 robbery near Fort Lauderdale. A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 400 years.

“The identification of the actual driver was actually broad, it was vague in a sense and really, the only identifying factor was that there was a yellow automobile and at that time, in the late 80s, if you look at the history of the yellow automobile it was the most common vehicle in the United States at that time,” Pryor said.

Speaking to NBC 6, Holmes said he was at home and had no knowledge of the robbery or anything like that.

Holmes, who was 23 at the time of his conviction, admitted he thought he would die in prison.

“I turned anger into success, I took anger and I educated myself; I got a degree, I got a theology degree, I got pr, legal service degree, computer certification,” he explained.

In March 2023, Holmes was set free but was not compensated despite a Florida law that gives those wrongfully convicted $50,000 (N76 million) for every year spent in prison, due to his prior criminal history.

However, a claims bill was earlier passed in 2025, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed and approved a $1.7 million (N2.5 billion) payment for Holmes.

An organisation gave Holmes $8,000 (N12 million) worth of items from his Amazon wish list and $5,000 (N7.6 million) in donations. He had also tied the knot, got two new jobs, and a home, CBS News reported.

It is noteworthy that Holmes contacted the Broward County State Attorney's Office in 2020 to plead his innocence.

In a related story, Legit.ng reported that a man who spent 26 years on death row for crime he didn't commit had reunited with his mother after his release.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a man wrongly jailed for 17 years had been released and would be compensated with N1 billion by the government.

The man, Andrew Malkinson, was arrested and convicted in 2004 on charges of assaulting a woman in Salford, UK.

Malkinson was imprisoned even though he had always maintained that he did not commit the crime for which he was convicted.

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Source: Legit.ng