Wrongfully Convicted at 14: The Story of Gio Romero and the Cost of Injustice

At just fourteen years old, Gio Hernandez Romero was wrongfully convicted at 14 and sentenced to 50 years to life for a murder he didn’t commit. Seventeen years later, he walked free—a living reminder of how fragile justice can be.

Gio Hernandez Romero was just beginning high school in Los Angeles when his life was ripped apart. “I was arrested on August 24, 2006,” he recalled. “They told me it was for murder and attempted murders—obviously crimes I did not commit.”

Gio thought it was a prank. “At first, I didn’t believe what was going on. I thought it was a scare-straight program,” he said on The Last Mile Radio. Instead, that day marked the beginning of a 17-year nightmare—one that would end only when he was exonerated in 2023, after being wrongfully convicted at 14 and sentenced to 50 years to life.

His story is extraordinary, but tragically, not unique. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, over 3,478 people in the U.S. have been exonerated since 1989. In 2023 alone, 153 wrongful convictions were overturned, costing a combined 2,230 years of human life.

A Stolen Childhood In Los Angeles

Gio grew up in Los Angeles in a “poor but humble” family. “Both my parents worked tirelessly to make ends meet,” he said. “I was a quiet, awkward kid who got bullied a lot. I didn’t like school. I was a good student, but I didn’t like the environment.”

At thirteen, he began spending time with older kids in his neighborhood who were in a gang. “It started slow—just hanging out, dressing like them, and acting like them,” he said. That sense of belonging soon came at a devastating cost.

“I had to make a decision as a 13-year-old kid,” Gio explained. “There was no other option that could satiate that thirst for belonging. I’d rather have someone fear me than someone just try to bully me.”

Only a year later, that fragile sense of identity was shattered when police arrested him for a murder he did not commit. “I remember looking for cameras in my cell, thinking it was all part of a joke,” Gio said. “As time went on, I realized it was not a joke — it was serious.”

He was tried as an adult—his first court date arriving when he was barely old enough to drive. “They woke me up at three in the morning, shackled my feet, waist, and hands,” he recalled. “I had no idea where I was going, but I was told I was going to court.”

The National Crisis of Wrongful Convictions

Gio’s ordeal is not an anomaly—it’s part of a national crisis. The Innocence Project estimates that between 4–6% of people in U.S. prisons are actually innocent. If accurate, that means one in twenty incarcerated people may have been wrongfully convicted.

In 2023, 77% of exonerations involved official misconduct, including falsified evidence, coerced witnesses, or withheld information. Eighty-five percent of homicide exonerations alone in 2022 were marred by official misconduct, according to the 2023 National Registry of Exonerations annual report.

Nearly 84% of exonerees were people of color, and 61% were Black, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. These numbers reflect deep systemic bias.

As the Georgia Innocence Project explains, “Unchecked biases cause jurors, judges, and prosecutors to presume some people are less innocent than others.” The result is a system where marginalized youth like Gio are far more likely to be targeted, convicted, and forgotten.

Seventeen Years of Lost Time

Before his conviction in 2012, Gio spent six years in jail awaiting trial. His first trial ended in a mistrial; the second sent him away for life. “My first trial in 2010 was a hung jury,” he explained. “Then in 2012, I got convicted. I was supposed to get five life sentences plus 275 years.”

Senate Bill 9, which prohibited life without parole for juveniles, reduced his sentence to 50 years to life—but for Gio, the reality was the same. “They said I’d have a chance at parole when I was 64,” Gio said. “To them, that was justified.”

He served time in some of California’s most well-known facilities—Calipatria, Ironwood, and others. “I always thought, this is America. They’ll make things right,” he said. “But when I lost my last appeal, I thought, that’s it. I’ll die in prison.”

The National Registry of Exonerations found that in 2023, exonerees spent an average of 14.6 years imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Gio’s 17 years place him near that average. The cost to a young person’s life is incalculable—not just in lost time, but in lost potential, family connections, and a young adulthood spent in a prison cell.

For many people, this is where the story ends. Years of incarceration turn into a lifetime tethered to the system—reoffending, reentering, and rarely finding a path forward. Hope erodes slowly until survival becomes the only goal. 

But for some, a single opportunity can change that trajectory. Programs like The Last Mile restore a sense of purpose, dignity, and self-worth. For Gio, that chance to learn, to grow, and to reconnect with his own potential became the first real sign that life could exist beyond a prison sentence.

Finding Hope With The Last Mile

At Ironwood State Prison, Gio encountered The Last Mile, a program teaching incarcerated individuals coding, communication, and entrepreneurship. “Before I left Calipatria, I heard about The Last Mile,” he said. “It caught my attention. It was beyond where we were. As soon as I got to Ironwood, I signed up. The rest is history.”

The program transformed how Gio saw himself and others. “It gave me confidence,” he said. “It showed me I had something to offer, that I wasn’t just my conviction.”

The Last Mile’s focus on self-awareness, digital literacy, and storytelling has helped hundreds of participants rebuild their lives after incarceration. For Gio, it became a lifeline. “That’s where my change happened,” he said. “People started to vouch for me. I got help. I found leadership, hope, and direction.”

When he was finally exonerated in 2023—thanks in part to the Loyola Law School Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic—his gratitude extended to everyone who had kept his hope alive.

“When they told me I was going home, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I just started crying. After so many years of fighting, it felt unreal. I kept thinking about all the people who believed in me, who never gave up.”

Now free, Gio sees his purpose clearly. “I can’t get those years back,” he said, “but I can use my story to help others who are still inside. That’s what keeps me going now.”

A Call for Accountability In The Justice System

Wrongful convictions destroy lives, but they also erode faith in our system of justice itself. Since 1989, exonerees have collectively lost over 27,000 years behind bars. Official misconduct and racial bias continue to drive these injustices, especially in homicide cases involving young defendants of color.

Programs like The Last Mile and conviction integrity units are helping correct these wrongs by breaking cycles of recidivism, but prevention—not just exoneration—must be the goal. As Gio’s story reminds us, no child should enter the system labeled and condemned before they can even define who they are.

A Voice for Justice and Change

Every wrongful conviction is a life stolen, a dream deferred, and a test of our collective humanity. Gio Romero’s journey from a wrongfully convicted teenager to a free man symbolizes both the failures and the potential for redemption within America’s justice system. 

His voice now joins the growing chorus demanding reform—and reminding us that progress depends on compassion and accountability in equal measure. Listen to Gio’s whole conversation with host Tara Trask on The Last Mile Radio, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and on our website.

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By Robert Roche, VP of Marketing at The Last Mile, and Messigh Perry-Garner, Social Media Marketing Coordinator at The Last Mile

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