An 85-year-old British citizen who was put on death row despite later being declared innocent by a judge has died while still a prisoner in Florida, his lawyer has said.
Kris Maharaj, who was convicted of the murder of two business associates back in 1986, died in the prison hospital “after 38 years fighting injustice”, Clive Stafford Smith said on X.
A second tweet mentioned Mr Maharaj’s ever-supportive wife, Marita, who “braves the New World without Kris, making me breakfast this morning as a distraction…”
The human rights lawyer and founder of the campaign group Reprieve also said Mr Maharaj’s body would be returned to England as per his client and his wife’s wish.
“Kris Maharaj will come home,” he said, adding a funeral would take place in the town of Bridport in “due course”.
Mr Maharaj, who was born in Trinidad but moved to England in 1960, was found to be responsible for the killing of father and son Derrick and Duane Moo Young in a Miami hotel room.
Mr Maharaj’s death sentence was overturned in 2002 and commuted to life, with the help of Reprieve.
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Mr Maharaj always protested his innocence and in 2019 a judge ruled he had proved it.
But five years on, the original verdict was still not overturned, resulting in Mr Maharaj spending his last living days in prison.
Before his imprisonment, Mr Maharaj was a wealthy man, the owner of race horses and Rolls-Royces in the UK, when he travelled to Florida with his wife to buy a retirement property.
One evening, as they were eating dinner in a restaurant, he was arrested. Within months was convicted of killing the two business associates.
“When they found me guilty, I passed out, I fainted. I just couldn’t believe you could be found guilty [of] something you didn’t do – murder,” he said when Sky News visited him for an interview four years ago.
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“It is very difficult to wake up every morning and think, ‘What on God’s earth am I doing here? These people know I am innocent.'”
Mr Maharaj said he was nowhere near Room 1215 of the Dupont Plaza Hotel on the night the father and son were killed.
He said he had alibi witnesses placing him miles away, but they were never called to give evidence.
He was originally sentenced to death and spent 17 years on death row before, aided by a campaign involving dozens of British politicians, his sentence was commuted to life.
