Kris Maharaj, Brit and former billionaire racehorse owner, was sentenced to death in 1987 for two murders he didn\u2019t commit – the killing of father and son Derrick and Duane Moo Young in a Miami hotel.<\/p>\n
Kris came very close to dying in Florida\u2019s electric chair, but Reprieve\u2019s work saved him from his death sentence. He will now be eligible for parole aged 101 – a death sentence in all but name.<\/p>\n
The real story of these murders was uncovered after years of investigation by various fantastic Reprieve volunteers working alongside Reprieve\u2019s Clive Stafford Smith, Kris\u2019s lawyer and friend for 24 years. Clive discovered that the Moo Youngs were involved in laundering billions of dollars for Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar, and that the murders were actually carried out by the cartels after Derrick and Duane lost or stole some of the money that they were laundering.<\/p>\n
Kris has been granted a new hearing where new evidence of his innocence can finally be presented before the courts. We continue to work on Kris\u2019s case ahead of the new hearing, in the hope that we can finally prove his innocent and end this injustice.<\/p>\n
Here are 7 unbelievable facts about Kris\u2019s case:<\/strong><\/p>\n Five drug cartel associates, including one of Pablo Escobar\u2019s chief lieutenants, have given statements admitting that they, not Kris, were responsible for the murders. The court ruled that they presented \u201ccompelling\u201d accounts that \u201cindependently corroborate one another\u2019s [\u2026] All five individuals\u2019 stories reflect that the Moo Youngs were killed by the Cartel.\u201d<\/p>\n The only other resident on the twelfth floor of the hotel was in Room 1214, across the hall from where the murders took place. He was from Colombia, and there was a blood smear on his door. The lead detective simply said he was \u201clegit\u201d \u2013 even though (unknown to the defence) he had just been indicted for membership in the Cartel.<\/p>\n Kris\u2019s original lawyer failed to call the six alibi witnesses who placed Kris 30 miles away from the scene.<\/p>\n Prosecutors told the judge the State\u2019s key witness had passed a lie detector test, when he in fact had failed. He has changed his story several times and committed perjury in six court cases. Kris, on the other hand, passed his polygraph.<\/p>\n The State\u2019s other key witness, who originally supported Kris\u2019s alibi, changed his testimony only after the prosecutors helped him get off a possible life sentence in Jamaica.<\/p>\n The original judge in Kris\u2019s case was arrested on the third day of the trial for soliciting bribes, ironically from a law enforcement officer posing as a cartel member. The second judge conspired secretly with the prosecutors to draw up the execution order before even listening to the evidence at the judicial sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n In court, a retired DEA special agent pointed out the various \u2018red flags\u2019 in the police investigation at the time, and agreed that these pointed to the fact that the murders were the work of Colombian drug cartels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kris Maharaj, Brit and former billionaire racehorse owner, was sentenced to death in 1987 for two murders he didn\u2019t commit – the killing of father and son Derrick and Duane Moo Young in a Miami hotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":17845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-update"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n1. Drug Cartel members admitted to the crimes<\/h2>\n
2. Known cartel assassin was staying in the opposite room<\/h2>\n
3. Alabi witnesses not called<\/h2>\n
4. Lie detectors and lies<\/h2>\n
5. Jamaica<\/h2>\n
6. Judges<\/h2>\n
7. Red Flags<\/h2>\n