July 1, 2025

Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor welcomes the news that Sidney Holmes, who was exonerated by the Broward State Attorney’s Office Conviction Review Unit, will receive $1,722,000 in compensation from the State of Florida.

Mr. Holmes, now 59, will also receive 120 hours of college/career center tuition and fees under the claims bill, which was unanimously approved by the Florida House and Senate earlier this year and signed today by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

State Attorney Pryor said: “This was the right thing to do. We are very thankful to the Governor and the Florida Legislature for doing the right thing. We all agreed that a man was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for an armed robbery that he did not commit, and that he should be compensated.”

“There is no amount of money that will give those years back to Mr. Holmes, but this a gesture that recognizes Mr. Holmes was wronged and that we, in the State of Florida and in the justice system, will help him and compensate him.”

The claims bill was shepherded through by State Representative Michael Gottlieb and Senator Jason Pizzo with support from the Broward State Attorney’s Office and assistance from the Innocence Project of Florida.

Mr. Holmes served more than 34 years of a 400-year state prison sentence for armed robbery before he was released from prison in 2023. He contacted the State Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit in November of 2020, stating he was factually innocent of the June 19, 1988, armed robbery of two people outside a convenience store. The One Stop store was at 2525 NW 6^th Street in unincorporated Broward County, just west of Fort Lauderdale.

Prosecutors with the Broward State Attorney’s Office Conviction Review Unit (CRU) conducted a thorough reinvestigation of the case and determined that Holmes had a plausible claim of innocence because of how he became a suspect and because of the precarious eyewitness identification that was the principal evidence against him at trial.

CRU prosecutors then asked the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) to assist Holmes while the CRU and IPF worked together on a thorough post-conviction reinvestigation. This cooperative work was part of a U.S. Department of Justice grant provided to the CRU and IPF to screen and investigate potential wrongful convictions. The goal of this Congressionally-authorized program is to create a non-adversarial approach to identifying and remedying wrongful convictions in a more time- and cost-efficient manner.

Since his release from prison, Mr. Holmes has obtained full-time employment. He has also visited our office and participated in training sessions by talking to our prosecutors about his experience and how to try to avoid wrongful convictions in the future.

In 2019, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office opened the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) to continue our practice of reviewing and investigating claims of innocence. The CRU screens cases for plausible claims of innocence and conducts detailed investigations, using the newest science, technology, techniques, experts and laws to ensure that innocent people are free and that true perpetrators are held accountable.

Since its inception, the unit’s noteworthy cases include the exoneration of Leonard Cure and Sidney Holmes, as well as a reinvestigation that provided new evidence that further implicated Robert Earl Hayes in a 1990 homicide. Additional information about the CRU is available here.