A Hawaii man who spent three decades in prison for a murder he has always denied committing declared the day as “Freedom Friday” after a judge ordered his release based on new DNA evidence. He expressed his eagerness to reunite with his mother.
Gasps and cries filled the courtroom when Judge Kirstin Hamman announced, “And the judgement and sentence is vacated and the defendant is ordered to be released from custody,” before the Zoom broadcast of the hearing abruptly ended.
The judge ruled that newly presented evidence, including DNA test results, would likely alter the outcome of a retrial for Gordon Cordeiro.
The case dates back to 1994 when Timothy Blaisdell was killed during a drug-related robbery on Maui. Cordeiro’s first trial ended in a hung jury, with only one juror voting for conviction. However, he was later found guilty of murder, robbery, and attempted murder and sentenced to life without parole.
The Hawaii Innocence Project took on Cordeiro’s case, arguing in a recent hearing that he should be freed due to new evidence proving his innocence, ineffective legal representation in the past, and prosecutorial misconduct.
Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin voiced disappointment in the ruling, stating, “None of the judge’s findings exonerate him in any way.” He also confirmed that his office plans to appeal and will seek bail conditions upon Cordeiro’s release, citing a flight risk due to the severity of the charges.
Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, described the courtroom scene as deeply emotional. “He cried, we all cried,” Lawson said. “He believed that he was going to be exonerated … but having gone through two trials, you lose faith in the justice system. To finally hear a judge say, ‘I’m vacating your convictions,’ that’s when it hit him.”
After his release, Cordeiro, now 51, spoke to reporters outside the Maui Community Correctional Center, with The Associated Press listening via phone from Honolulu. Calling the moment “Freedom Friday,” he expressed gratitude to his supporters, the judge, and even the prosecutors who agreed to certain facts in the case.
“I’d like to go see my mom,” he said. “Would be nice.” When asked about adjusting to life after 30 years behind bars, he responded, “I got good support.”
Court documents submitted by Cordeiro’s legal team indicated that his wrongful conviction was partly due to police relying on four jailhouse informants who were incentivized by offers of reduced sentences and fabricated murder-for-hire plots.
“Unfortunately for Cordeiro, the State’s use of incentivized jailhouse informants and their fabricated evidence and testimony about the murder-for-hire plots, was enough to convince a jury of his guilt in his second trial,” the Hawaii Innocence Project stated in its filings.
However, the judge determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove the state deliberately presented false testimony and rejected claims of prosecutorial misconduct.
Cordeiro’s attorneys emphasized that he had multiple alibis on the day of Blaisdell’s murder. At the time, the 22-year-old was at home with his parents and sisters, working on a shelving unit in the family’s open-air garage and installing a stereo in his sister’s car—far from the “Skid Row” area of upcountry Maui where the crime took place.
Blaisdell had gone to Skid Row with Michael Freitas, planning to purchase a pound of marijuana with $800, according to court documents. His body was later discovered at the bottom of a ravine.
Cordeiro’s lawyers argued that Freitas, who repeatedly changed his story, falsely implicated Cordeiro, believing he had “snitched” on him in an unrelated drug case.
Following Cordeiro’s conviction, new testing on crime scene evidence ruled him out as the source of DNA found on Blaisdell’s body and other key items. Instead, a DNA profile of an unidentified individual was discovered inside the pockets of Blaisdell’s jeans, according to the Hawaii Innocence Project.
The judge acknowledged that the newly revealed DNA evidence and additional details about gunshot residue could significantly impact the outcome of a retrial.
Cordeiro’s attorneys suspect that Freitas, who passed away in 2020, orchestrated Blaisdell’s robbery and played a role in his death.
“The police botched this case from the beginning and turned the No. 1 suspect into the state’s star witness, resulting in a 30-plus-year nightmare and miscarriage of justice for Gordon and his family,” Lawson said.
