NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A state judge on Wednesday rejected pleas to release a man who says he's been in prison for the past 26 years for a murder he didn't commit.
George Toca, now 43, was 17 at the time of his arrest in the 1984 death of his friend, Eric Batiste. He has been held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola since his conviction in 1985.
"I guess the judge didn't believe any of the 10 witnesses who testified," said Emily Maw, an attorney representing Toca through Innocence Project New Orleans. "Their pleas fell on deaf ears."
Maw said they plan to ask the state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal to review the decision.
"We will keep fighting through the appellate court and, if necessary, the federal system," she said. "We will continue to stand with the victim's family and ask for justice for Mr. Toca, justice that has been denied all these years."
Chris Bowman, a spokesman for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, said Toca received a legal and fair trial.
"The district attorney's office is satisfied with the ruling," he said. "The defendant has filed multiple applications for post-conviction relief and we have not been given any credible evidence to indicate that the wrong man was convicted."
Toca, according to Maw, was convicted based on misidentifications by two witnesses, who described Batiste's shooter as taller and weighing more than her client.
She said her client is "terribly disappointed" by Parker's ruling.
"He really thought he might finally have a court listen to the evidence in the case and right this horrible injustice," she said.
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