DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — Brandon Pugh was a victim of a carjacking, but instead of justice, he spent nearly 16 years in prison.
Douglas County DA Dalia Racine announced the exoneration on Monday, apologizing to Pugh and his family.
“Today we are working to right the wrong that we committed against Brandon Pugh and to do our best to make sure it never happens again,” Racine said.
In 2008, authorities arrested and convicted Pugh for a 2008 bank robbery. Witnesses at the time told the authorities that two armed masked men entered the Wachovia Bank on Lee Road in Douglas County, making off with $18,000.
A witness followed the white getaway car to a local motel, where police later found it abandoned with bank ink stains on the car.
The vehicle belonged to Pugh. However, he had reported that he was carjacked the night before and told authorities he was asleep during the robbery.
During the original trial, prosecutors indicated that Pugh lied about the carjacking and delayed calling 911. Authorities also said they found red bank ink on his fingernail.
“Mr. Pugh was convicted, while he maintained his innocence, of three counts of armed robbery and two counts of making a false statement,” Racine said.
However, during an innocence investigation carried out by Douglas County this year, DA Racine found multiple issues with the case.
Records found that Pugh did not wait to call 911. In fact, he was making 9-1-1 calls from Atlanta to East Point, while surveillance video showed his stolen car at a motel in Douglas County.
“Pugh could not have been there — it was an impossibility,” Racine said.
Investigators also found the ink in his home and on his person was not bank dye, evidence that was not clearly presented during Pugh’s trial.
“We must reckon that a system has failed him for 18 years,” Racine said.
Years later, police arrested one of the two bank robbers, who admitted to the crime. He told investigators he often stole vehicles before committing crimes, and that “only an idiot would rob a bank in a car in his own car.”
The DA’s office says Pugh went home to his family Wednesday, able to see his sons and family for the first time in more than a decade as a free man.
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