In 2019, DeJuan Jordan was exonerated of two separate convictions in El Paso County, Texas for which he had been sentenced to a combined six years in prison. On July 19, 2016, 40-year-old DeJuan Jordan was arrested in El Paso County on a charge of failure to register as a sex offender. The charge was based on a 2004 conviction in Indiana where Jordan pled guilty to sexual battery of a 15-year-old girl.
This was the second time Jordan had been accused of failing to register as a sex offender in Texas. On May 7, 2014, Jordan had been similarly arrested in El Paso County for failing to register based on the same Indiana crime. Jordan had pled guilty in December 2015 and was sentenced to two years in prison. He had been released from prison on February 5, 2016 and was then arrested again on July 19.
On October 19, 2016, Jordan pled guilty in the 243rd Judicial District Court to failure to register as a sex offender. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
He was released from prison on April 26, 2018. Not long after, he was arrested for a parole violation. In June 2018, the El Paso County District Attorney’s office discovered that in 2013, the Texas Department of Public Safety had determined that the Indiana charge of sexual battery did not require sex offender registration in Texas.
In June 2018, El Paso County Assistant District Attorney Lori Hughes notified Jordan and his attorneys. In August 2018, Hughes supported separate state law petitions for writs of habeas corpus filed to vacate Jordan’s convictions.
In September 2018, Judge Maria Salas Mendoza recommended that Jordan’s 2015 conviction be vacated. That same month, Judge Luis Aguilar recommended that Jordan’s 2016 conviction be vacated.
On December 19, 2018, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued separate rulings granting both writs and vacating both convictions. On January 15, 2018, both cases were dismissed.
In late 2021, Jordan’s defense attorney contacted attorney Michael Ware at the Innocence Project of Texas seeking assistance in obtaining compensation for Jordan. Although the statute of limitations had nearly expired and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had not granted Jordan’s writ on actual innocence grounds, the legal effort on Jordan’s behalf was successful. In 2022, the state of Texas awarded Jordan $165,416 in February 2022 and $130,833 in May 2022 for the two wrongful convictions.
– Maurice Possley
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