He was only 19 years old, with his whole life ahead of him. He had just finished high school, the first in his family to do so, and was planning to go to college. He came from a very poor family and didn’t want that life for himself. He dreamed of being a businessman, but life had other plans. One day, the police knocked on his door and accused him of committing a murder, at a time and in a city where he wasn’t even present.
His name is Miguel Solorio. Thanks to the defense from his lawyers and the Innocence Project, he was able to prove his innocence and was released in November 2023.
“Imagine, a 19 year old young man. One day full of dreams. The next, behind bars,” Solorio says.
From the beginning, he shouted his innocence from the rooftops, but “the police and the prosecution needed a culprit. The one who accused me, knowing I was innocent, is now a judge. It’s what they care about, tallying convictions to get a promotion,” he explains.
Spending 25 years in prison isn’t easy. At 19, 20, or 21, you have to deal with confinement, the anger of being innocent, and the helplessness that comes with having all doors closed.
“I always advise that you shouldn’t take anything for granted. You have to do what your heart tells you. The happiness of being outside is being able to do what any human being can do. If I wake up and want to keep sleeping, I do. If I want to get up and go to the beach, I go. If I want to go to a game, a mall, or another place, I do. I don’t have to follow schedules and routines,” he says, recalling his years in prison.
“I had to build a routine, think, study my case, have set meal times, rest, and sleep. Prison is a very hard place; you have to prepare yourself to endure it. It made me so sad to see young people there because they made a mistake and would now spend most of their lives locked up. This is not the solution for justice in our country. Second chances must exist,” he adds.
For 18 years, Miguel Solorio was very angry, feeling that the judicial system had failed him. He sought out organizations that would take his case; some refused, while others gave him hope.
“Watching the years, months, and days pass by without progress is frustrating. I fell into a deep depression; I went from weighing 180 pounds to 119. I felt like I was dying. Then I thought, ‘Miguel, you have to be strong to fight your case, you can’t give up,’” he recalls.
He emailed a church, and they sent him a Bible. He started reading it, and everything changed. Faith returned, bringing with it hope.
“The first thing I read in the scriptures was the story of Job; he also lost his home and his daughters, but he never lost faith in God. He never doubted his faith. That fed me and made me a strong person. I wouldn’t give up so easily,” he says. “Now I was one of those who go with the wave, not against it.”
When he received the news of his freedom, it felt like the ground was shaking beneath him. Finally, he would regain his freedom, his life. “I was deprived of freedom. I had to learn to live again. The world of technology was foreign to me. My lawyer gave me an Android phone, and I didn’t know what to do with it. She gave me a debit card, and when I went to buy something, I said my PIN number out loud, surprising those around me. When I went to the mall and entered a sports shoe store, I burst into tears. My friend asked why I was crying, and I said, ‘You don’t know the feeling of being able to buy what I want, not what I’m told.’”
For Miguel, having family and friends by his side was what saved him.
“I always say this phrase: ‘True friends walk in when the world walks out.’ My mom and my sisters were always there.”
For him, the problem of wrongful convictions is closely related to Latinos and Blacks. Many want to see them behind bars. For cases like that of Franky Carrillo Jr. and others, the clearest example is to keep fighting and… have hope.
Solorio is aware of the case of Antonio and José, two Latinos accused of a crime they say they didn’t commit. Antonio’s sister, Yvonne, is conducting an intense campaign presenting new evidence and hoping the sentence will be reviewed.
“I would tell Yvonne, ‘Don’t stop, fight, fight until the end.’”
Antonio and Jose: A Request for Justice—Just That, and It’s Not Much to Ask
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