Same thing happened to a friend of mine. Was wrongly accused and convicted of killing his wife. The police and coroner fabricated evidence to convict him.
He was finally freed after spending 23 years on a life sentence.
What happened to your friend is one of those recurring stories that really galls me about cops and prosecutors.
Someone is *proven* innocent and these bastards won’t let go of the person just because of their precious ego. Or because they were “sure” they had the right person even though the evidence may actually point at someone else altogether!
A friend of mine calls this “cop bias” where the cops make a knee-jerk emotional decision as to who their suspect is and then they collect evidence to support that decision and then actively dismiss, suppress, and even destroy evidence that proves the person is innocent.
These criminals who happen to have badges should be held criminally accountable when they falsify evidence, repeatedly perjure themselves in court, and then try to keep someone in prison even when they’re proven innocent.
It is truly disgusting that the people we entrust to uphold the law break it so callously.