An appeals court freed a Colorado man who had been sentenced to more than 300 years in prison for the violent sexual assault of six children after ruling that the man's right to a speedy trial had been violated.
Michael McFadden, 46, was released from the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility Tuesday and he will not be required to register as a sex offender, The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.
McFadden was convicted in 2015. The decision to vacate the conviction was based on a delay caused by a request from McFadden's defense to makes changes to a jury questionnaire. Although it was the defendant's team that requested the changes, the appeals court ruled the delay couldn't be blamed on McFadden and the state Supreme Court allowed the ruling to stand.
"We are without remedy," Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein told the Daily Sentinel.
Rubenstein said he was "appalled" by the decision to free McFadden after "a jury of the defendant's peers, which the defendant helped choose, unanimously found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of sexually offending against six innocent victims."
The prosecutor said McFadden was going free because of "an arbitrary statutory right that the defendant had waived on two prior occasions.
