investigative journalist

FORMER ECM WRITER SPOTLIGHTS INNOCENCE PROJECT'S EFFORTS TO FREE MAN EXONERATED OF MURDER

Richard Darvas, a freelance investigative journalist who has won awards for his reporting in East County Magazine, has painstakingly dissected the case of William Richards, a prisoner whom the San Diego-based California Innocence Project believes was falsely convicted of murder. 

 By Miriam Raftery

February 24, 2012 (San Diego)--In August 1993, William Richards lost his wife of 22 years to a grim murder in Hesperia, Calif. Richard Darvas, an investigative reporter convinced of Richards’ innocence, observes, “State accusers wrested away the last vestiges of his dignity during four murder trials over as many years. At sentencing in San Bernardino Superior Court, the remainder of this man’s life was bartered for a hollow expedient.”  

Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.