Colorado Man Accidentally Released Decades Early Gets Freedom

In 2000, Rene Lima-Marin was sentenced to 98 years in prison, consecutive terms for robbery, burglary, and kidnapping after he and other man were convicted for a series of video store robberies. That might have been the last anyone outside of prison and what family he had ever heard of him.

But in 2008 - 9o years early - he was released.

A clerk had written down that his terms were to be served concurrently and consecutively.

Lima-Marin knew he was getting out early but kept quiet.

He decided to make the most of the situation. he got a series of low-level jobs and worked his way up, eventually becoming a window glazier. He got married, had two sons. By all accounts, became a model citizen.

It all came to an end in 2014 when his co-defendant appealed his case and in reviewing the record, prosecutors realized that a mistake had been made with Lima-Marin. It wan't too hard to find him - he wasn't exactly in hiding; he was proud of the life that he had built.

Prosecutors, though, saw things differently. They argued that Lima-Marin knew he wasn't supposed to be getting out and should have said something.

Lima-Marin started getting attention.

Last month, as his wife and sons watched - they received a standing ovation from lawmakers - members of the Colorado House, from both sides of the aisle to speak in favor of a resolution declaring Lima-Marin's sentence "cruel and unusual punishment" and asking the governor to grant him clemency.

It passed overwhelmingly. The state senate did the same earlier this month.

On Tuesday, the court followed suit and a judge ordered him released once and for all.

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"What happens when a criminal defendants is prematurely released from prison as a result of a clerical error in the sentencing order and the government subsequently delays in re-arresting him for almost six years until he has already already has completed parole, married, adopted a son, fathered a son, started a successful career as a glazier, purchased a home, and become a productive, respected, law-abiding, and well-liked member of the community?" Chief Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. wrote.

"What is justice in that situation?"

Samour said that requiring Lima-Marin to serve the rest of his prison sentence all these years later "would be draconian, would deprive him of substantive due process, and would perpetrate a manifest injustice. Because the Court finds that Lima-Marin is being unlawfully detained, he is ordered released.

"No other remedy will result in justice in this case."