AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File
- Herbert Alford was convicted of murder after Hertz couldn't locate a receipt that was his alibi.
- Years later, Hertz located the receipt and Alford was exonerated after nearly 5 years behind bars.
- Alford is now suing Hertz for unspecified financial compensation.
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A man who was exonerated for murder in 2020 after spending nearly five years locked up is suing a rental car company for not producing a receipt that would've supported his alibi before he was convicted, the Associated Press reported.
Herbert Alford was accused of a murder that took place in Michigan in 2011, and requested a record of his receipt from Hertz in 2015. The company said it was unable to locate it at the time. In 2016, Alford was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
In 2018, Hertz found the record, which showed Alford was renting a car at an airport near Lansing, Michigan, and nowhere near the crime scene, at the time of the murder. The victim, Michael Adams, was shot at a location that was 20 minutes away.
Alford's conviction was dismissed in 2020 as a result of the new evidence.
Alford, 47, filed a lawsuit against Hertz on Tuesday in Ingham County, Michigan, and is seeking financial compensation.
"There is no question that he would have avoided going to prison had they produced this documentation," Jamie White, Alford's lawyer, told local outlet WLNS.
Alford spent a total of nearly five years locked up before being exonerated in February 2020.
"Had the defendants not ignored and disobeyed numerous court orders requiring them to produce the documentation that eventually freed Mr. Alford, he would not have spent over 1,700 days incarcerated," the complaint filed by White said, according to CNN.
Hertz told AP the company is "deeply saddened" over Alford's situation.
"While we were unable to find the historic rental record from 2011 when it was requested in 2015, we continued our good faith efforts to locate it," Hertz said in a statement. "With advances in data search in the years following, we were able to locate the rental record in 2018 and promptly provided it."
AP reported the lawsuit could experience delays due to Hertz undergoing bankruptcy reorganization.