An infamous LAPD scandal, a gang shooting and a 25-year fight to prove a teen innocent
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On the night Los Angeles police claim he carried out an act of gangland vengeance, Oscar Eagle could barely walk.In March 1998, Eagle was only 17 and using crutches to get around after he was wounded in a drive-by shooting.
The bullet is still in his leg to this day, marked by a coin-shaped indentation on his calf.At the same time that police allege Eagle opened fire on an 18th Street gang member in an act of retribution, he says he was at an East L.A.
hospital because a friend’s cousin was giving birth, according to court records.Eagle knew he was innocent.
Witnesses placed him at the hospital and he said medical records could prove he wasn’t mobile enough to carry out the crime.But a combination of dubious legal representation and an arrest made by members of a notoriously corrupt unit in the Los Angeles Police Department saw Eagle sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.
In July, a judge granted a joint motion from the California Innocence Project and the L.A.County district attorney’s office to vacate Eagle’s conviction, citing ineffective assistance of counsel and questions about the behavior of LAPD detectives on the case.
For reform advocates, Eagle’s case epitomizes the problem with prosecuting teens as adults, but it also marks a positive sign for the L.A.County district attorney’s office’s conviction review unit under Nathan Hochman, who personally appeared at the hearing where Eagle was set free.“This is what I’ve been dreaming of every day,” a tearful Eagle, 45, said during an interview in late July.Formed in 2015 and expanded under former Dist.
Atty.George Gascón, Hochman has shown a continued commitment to the conviction review unit.
After facing criticism for recording just four exonerations from 2015 to 2020, the unit has been involved in 12 in just the last four years, according to a district attorney’s office spokesperson.“I think...