Freed inmate struggling to prove his innocence in Salt Lake City robbery

When Harry Miller was told he could leave prison, he curled up into a ball and "cried like a baby."

He cried so hard his sheets were soaking wet.

He was 4 1/2 years into a five-years-to-life sentence for aggravated robbery — a crime he was accused of committing in Salt Lake City less than two weeks after he had a stroke in Louisiana.

Miller has always maintained his innocence and believes he was wrongly imprisoned. Now, a decision issued Thursday by the Utah Court of Appeals may afford Miller the justice he believes has long eluded him.

In that decision, Judge Pamela Greenwood wrote: "Because we determine that Miller's petition presents a 'bona fide issue as to whether (he) is factually innocent of the charges of which (he) was convicted,' we reverse and remand for a hearing to determine Miller's factual innocence."

Miller still doesn't understand how he was convicted of the Dec. 8, 2000, crime, because he says he was bed-ridden in Louisiana at the time.

"I just wonder how they could say I had done that when I had proof where I was," he told the Deseret News. "There's no way a man who had a stroke in Louisiana spent $500 to go to Salt Lake for $50."

Miller was convicted of robbing an elderly woman at knifepoint at a Salt Lake-area Stop n' Go convenience store.

Miller lived in Utah from 1989 to 1999 before returning to his home state of Louisiana. Miller says he didn't return to Utah until 2002. He was arrested in 2003 for investigation of a robbery at a Dee's restaurant, but that case was eventually dismissed.

He says police used his photo from the 2003 arrest and showed it to the elderly woman from the 2000 case and she identified him as the man who robbed her three years earlier.

Miller insists he was in Louisiana then and says his entire right side was debilitated by the stroke.

"I was partially paralyzed," Miller said. "My whole right side went dead on me. I couldn't talk, I couldn't stand up, nothing. And if I wanted to tell you 'good morning,' it would take five minutes."

Miller told the trial court about the stroke and its effects as part of his alibi defense. But he was the only witness to that fact. His sister, who took care of him after the stroke, did not testify in the trial because she was tending to other family business in Louisiana and couldn't make it.

She did, however, write a letter saying she saw him every single day after the Nov. 25 stroke, but her testimony was deemed unreliable by the court.

Miller was sent to prison and spent his time struggling to understand how he ended up there.