Santae A. Tribble, 51, always maintained his innocence in the 1978 killing of a taxi driver in Washington, D.C. After 28 years in prison, a judge overturned Tribble’s conviction and precluded Tribble from being charged again.
Tribble was connected to the murder of the taxi driver through a hair found near the scene. However, new technology proved that the hair was not Tribble’s. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the DNA results raised substantial doubts as to Tribble’s guilt and agreed to drop the murder charges against him but prosecutors stopped short of supporting full exoneration.
Tribble must now seek a certificate of actual innocence to be fully exonerated under the D.C. Innocence Protection Act. In the meantime, Tribble is trying to move on with his life. He told The Washington Post, “It’s hard to put behind me. I stay with friends, but that could change from day to day at any time…there’s a lot of things I have to work on, but I’m happy this part of it is over.”
Read the full story in The Washington Post here.
