Dwayne Brooks, a man who spent more than half his life in prison for a 1987 murder he said he had nothing to do with, won't be retried, according to a motion to dismiss filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
News 5 Investigator Scott Noll will have more on this story at 5:30 p.m.
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Brooks, 57, had been in prison for 35 years for an Aug. 17, 1987 shooting that left a man named Clinton Arnold dead and two others injured.
A jury convicted Brooks of aggravated murder and other charges. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Recently-discovered police reports raised questions about the prosecution’s case. Brooks maintained that he had nothing to do with the deadly attack.
Cuyahoga County Judge William McGinty granted Brooks a new trial after finding prosecutors withheld information from defense attorneys that denied Brooks a fair trial.
The attorney who represented Brooks at trial testified during a November court hearing that he never saw the reports, and the lead prosecutor in the case testified that at the time of the 1988 trial, it was the prosecutor’s policy not to share copies of those reports with defense lawyers.
In his ruling, McGinty found that while the state did not disclose the information to defense attorneys, he did not find prosecutors acted in bad faith.
On Tuesday, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley submitted a motion to dismiss the charges without prejudice, citing several items that would affect the case had it gone back to trial.
According to the motion, several critical witnesses in the case have died since it originally went to trial decades ago. Additionally, of the two living victims, one stated they didn't want to participate in a re-trial, and the other refused to speak with investigators again.
O'Malley wrote in the motion that his office spent a month reviewing the case, which ended with the decision to dismiss.
