Denver man rebuilds life after 15 years in prison

James "Cass" Garner spent 15 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, convicted of a 2009 shooting at a Denver bar based on unreliable eyewitness testimony. In April 2025, with help from the Korey Wise Innocence Project, a district court vacated his conviction and ordered his immediate release from Sterling Correctional Facility, exonerating him of all responsibility for the crime.

Garner was arrested after a shooting at a Denver bar on his birthday in 2009, when three brothers were injured. Garner became the focus of the investigation after his glasses were found at the scene. Despite never being identified in initial photo lineups, the three victims pointed to Garner in court nearly three years after the shooting — testimony that proved enough to give him a 32-year sentence.

"I told the judge on the day he sentenced me I would be back in front of him one day, and I'll prove to him I am not the monster these liars portrayed me to be," Garner said.

The Korey Wise Innocence Project attorneys Kathleen Lord and Jeanne Segil took on Garner's case, focusing on discrediting the eyewitness identifications. In the months immediately following the shooting, none of the three victims identified Garner in photo lineups. The courtroom identifications three years later occurred in a highly suggestive setting, with Garner being the only man seated at the defense table alongside two female attorneys.