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A man in the US is suing car rental company Hertz over a receipt that cleared him of murder after having already spent nearly five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, the Associated Press reported.

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Herbert Alford was convicted of second-degree murder in 2016 in the shooting death of Michael Adams, his attorney Jamie White told WLNS-TV, according to AP.

“The Hertz receipt showed Alford was renting a car at a Lansing-area airport around the time that Adams was shot, White said. He was killed in a Lansing neighborhood 20 minutes away from the airport,” according to the report. “The conviction was thrown out and charges were finally dropped in 2020, after Alford had served nearly five years in prison and jail.”

The company reportedly “failed to produce in a timely manner a receipt that would have proved his innocence long before he was convicted of a 2011 murder,” according to the AP.

Alford was exonerated in Ingham County last year, after evidence from the rental company was obtained in 2018.

“There is no question that [Alford] would have avoided going to prison had they produced this documentation,” his attorney said, according to AP.
Hertz reportedly said it is “deeply saddened” about what happened to Alford.

The lawsuit, in which Alford is seeking financial compensation, was filed against Hertz last week, “although the case will be slowed by the company’s bankruptcy reorganization,” according to AP.

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