Man Wrongfully Convicted Of Murder Sues A Rental Company For Failing To Provide Receipt That Supported His Alibi
A Michigan man is suing Hertz rental for failing to provide a rental car receipt which would have proven that he had an alibi in a murder charge.
People reports that in 2016, Herbert Alford was convicted of second-degree murder for the shooting of Michael Adams. However, he was innocent and his rental receipt would have proven this.
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The receipt proved that Alford was renting a car at the airport at the time if the murder. The receipt from Hertz was finally brought in as evidence in 2018. Alford was then exonerated in Ingham County after three years.
“We do not believe that we can prove Mr. Alford’s legal culpability by the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard,”Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney Carol Siemon in a statement. “Therefore, the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office is dismissing the case against Herbert Alford.”
By the time the charges were dropped, he had spent five years in jail.
Hertz told PEOPLE it was “deeply saddened to learn of Mr. Alford’s experience.”
“While we were unable to find the historic rental record from 2011 when it was requested in 2015, we continued our good faith efforts to locate it,” Hertz said. “With advances in data search in the years following, we were able to locate the rental record in 2018 and promptly provided it.”