A Rhode Island Superior Court judge has vacated the murder conviction of a man after finding that his trial attorney violated his rights by discouraging him from testifying that he stabbed a man in self-defense.
The Providence Journal reported Monday that in her decision overturning the second-degree murder conviction of Miguel Tebalan Rivera, Judge Netti C. Vogel also found that Providence police conducted an illegal interview by continuing to question Rivera long after he had asked for an attorney.
Rivera was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he was convicted of the December 2015 stabbing death of 36-year-old Julio Francisco Perez.
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