DNA Clears Man Convicted in Inglewood Killing After 38 Years in Prison

Maurice Hastings, 69, sits in court during the hearing. His conviction of the 1983 abduction and killing of a woman in Inglewood was overturned after newly tested DNA evidence showed that another man was responsible for the crime. Screenshot via Vimeo/Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office

LOS ANGELES—A man who served 38 years in prison for the 1983 abduction and killing of a woman in Inglewood is a free man Oct. 28, with authorities saying newly tested DNA evidence exonerated him of the crime and identified a different person as the culprit in the slaying.

“I’m not pointing fingers. I’m not standing up here a bitter man,” Maurice Hastings, 69, said during a downtown Los Angeles news conference. “But I just want to enjoy my life while I have it. And I just want to move forward.”