8-16-05,11:07am

WHILE it has a happy ending, like a Hollywood movie, the story of Luis Díaz could not be sadder. For 26 years, he was jailed in southern Florida, convicted of crimes that he did not commit and that he, his family and his friends repeatedly denied.

Luis left Cuba one day for the United States, seeking fame and fortune. He dreamed of making money and achieving the American dream with his family. Like other Cuban immigrants, he established himself in Miami, but he was able to get only one job, on night shift and not very well paid, as a cook at a fast-food joint. During his marriage, three children were born. The family survived on a tight budget.

His troubles took a turn for the worse in 1977. After finishing his shift at nearly midnight one night, he drove his car to a gas station to fill up. One of the female employees there noted his license plate number and called the police, claiming that Luis was the man who had kidnapped and raped her a few days before on Bird Road, a dark Miami street.

Luis was arrested and questioned. The young woman could not give precise details about her allegations, and Luis was set free. But sexual attacks continued in that area of Miami, and another young victim identified Luis from a police suspect file photo as her attacker.

Another six young women raped and assaulted in the area also identified Luis. In 1980, he was tried in Miami. Despite the fact that he, his family, his co-workers and his neighbors testified on his behalf, he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was 41 years old at the time. His life fell apart like a house of cards. His wife asked for, and got, a divorce from her husband behind bars.

Fortunately, the semen obtained from some of the victims were kept in custody. Luis’s older son, José Díaz, convinced of his father’s innocence, led a campaign to have the semen submitted for DNA testing. After testing was done in two of the cases, it was possible to establish that Luis was telling the truth when he swore that he had nothing to do with the sexual attacks.

Independent investigations showed that, in spite of the doubts expressed by some of the victims, the insistence of the Miami police practically forced them to finger Luis as the criminal. The reasoning by Miami authorities seemed to be, why look for another suspect if they already had one behind bars? The case was even aired on the “Unsolved Mysteries” television program.

During 2001, after two of the women retracted their accusations against Luis, he became eligible for parole, but was denied it by the state of Florida. It wasn’t until the summer of this year that a Miami court declared him innocent. “Luis Díaz is not the notorious Bird Road rapist,” the court affirmed.

Although it does have a happy ending, this is certainly a sad story. It is the saga of Luis Díaz, a man who spent 26 years incarcerated for crimes he did not commit, a young man who unjustly aged behind the bars of a jail cell.

It is the story of a Latino immigrant whose American dream ended up being a horrible and protracted nightmare. How many more like him are languishing in U.S. prisons? Granma International