On April 25, 2013, police in Houston, Texas arrested 23-year-old Exzavian Curtis after they found him carrying a powdered substance that field-tested positive for cocaine.
On April 29, 2013, Curtis pled guilty in Harris County Criminal District Court to possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to court-supervised probation for two years.
The same day that Curtis pled guilty, the Houston Police Department crime laboratory tested the powder seized from Curtis and determined there were no controlled substances present.
The laboratory informed the Harris County District Attorney’s Post Conviction Review Unit which then notified Curtis’s attorney.
On September 10, 2014, the prosecution and the defense filed a motion requesting that Curtis’s conviction be vacated. A judge granted the motion on the basis of actual innocence. The prosecution then dismissed the charge.
– Maurice Possley
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