Los Angeles County police may face consequences for their roles in the wrongful conviction of two men who spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit.

According to the



Los Angeles Times



, a federal appeals panel ruled Wednesday that Frank O’Connell and Francisco Carrillo, Jr. may sue Los Angeles County after police failed to turn over exonerating evidence in their cases.

O’Connell was convicted of murder in 1984, but was exonerated and released in 2012 when Superior Court Judge Suzette Clover found that sheriff’s detectives had failed to disclose evidence that excluded him from the crime to either the prosecution or the defense.

Carillo was convicted of killing a man in a drive-by shooting and served 20 years. He was released in 2011 when Superior Court Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo ordered his release, ruling that key eyewitness testimony against him was unreliable. Carillo alleges that the sheriff’s deputy knew that an eyewitness had trouble identifying him as the shooter and tried to pressure the witness when he decided to recant.

“Both Mr. Carrillo and Mr. O’Connell are innocent men who have had some of the most important years of their life stolen from them by law enforcement officers who withheld critical evidence that would have led to their acquittals,” Ron Kaye, a lawyer for Carrillo, told the



Los Angeles Times



.

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