A 44-year-old Milwaukee man was released from prison this Thanksgiving Week, after spending 27 years behind bars for allegedly committing a double murder in the city. But the Wisconsin Innocence Project (WIP), a legal clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School, says it doesn’t believe its client, Manuel Cucuta, committed the crime.
WIP, with collaboration from Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, successfully petitioned the same Milwaukee County judge who oversaw Cucuta’s 1999 murder trial to agree to vacate — or dismiss — the murder convictions and sentences against Cucuta.
On Nov. 27, 1995, two men, Jose Antonio Andino and Luis A. Enriquez, were found shot to death in an alley on Milwaukee’s south side. The case went unsolved for three years. Then, according to WIP Co-Director Christopher Lau, the DA’s office and FBI focused their efforts on the then 17-year-old Cucuta, who was already in custody and was part of the Latin Kings gang.
Lau says the government was trying to dismantle the gang. He says during Cucuta’s trial, the only evidence against him was incentivized testimony from other Latin Kings members who faced other serious state or federal charges, and received lesser penalties in return for their testimony.
Lau says as a result, “The least culpable, the least dangerous, least savvy teenager (Cucuta) got two life sentences.”
Sentences without the possibility of parole, Lau emphasizes.
But Cucuta pursued appeals, and in 2015, contacted the Innocence Project, which receives hundreds of requests per month from prison inmates challenging their courtroom convictions. Lau says, “It seemed clear from the outset that there were real questions with the way this case was investigated, tried and sentenced.”
The questions, Lau says, included whether Cucuta’s private bar defense counsel adequately challenged the state’s narrative or presented mitigating evidence that could prove the defendant’s innocence.
Also remarkable, Lau says, is that three siblings of one of the murder victims have come forward and said they don’t believe Cucuta committed the crime. All three testified at a mid-November court hearing and said they wanted to see Cucuta released.
After Circuit Judge Jeffery A. Wagner vacated the murder convictions, the state added two lesser charges, including second-degree reckless homicide. Cucuta has pleaded no contest, in exchange for his freedom, and maintains his innocence. WIP says it will work to exonerate him.
Lau says Cucuta has a supportive family home, and looks forward to full-time work. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to help Cucuta.
