A man in Colorado who was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison for child sex crimes in 2015, is now walking free after his conviction was thrown out on a technicality.
Michael Tracy McFadden, 46, was convicted for 19 counts of sexual offenses, including a habitual sex offender against children, according to KKCO. McFadden was released from the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility on Tuesday.
In June, the Colorado Court of Appeals found that McFadden's right to a speedy trial was violated when the judge in the case granted a continuance. When the court ruled that his statutes were violated, they threw out his conviction.
"Frankly I'm completely appalled with the decision," District Attorney Dan Rubenstein told KREX. "I find it offensive that our justice system would allow this to happen."
Rubenstein explained to KREX that speedy trials are broken down into two categories: constitutional and statual.
Constitutional speedy trials have no timeframe, depending on the case. However, in Colorado, statutory speedy right trials require a time frame of six months.
Rubinstein told reporters, “Because the error here was that he shouldn’t have been tried longer than six months from the last time he waived speedy trial, there was no remedy for that, and therefore there is no ability to retry him."
"The justice system completely failed in this situation. If you've heard the phrase 'got off on a technicality,' this is the phrase to the most stark sense I've ever seen it," said Rubinstein.
Reports state that McFadden has been exonerated from all of his charges and does not have to register as a sex offender.
