Five Wrongfully Convicted Of Homicide Awarded $40 million

Eric Glisson, right, with his lawyer Peter Cross

[From article]

Five innocent people who each spent nearly 20 years in the slammer for a murder they didn’t commit are dropping their malicious-prosecution suits in exchange for $40 million, Peter Cross, a lawyer for one of the ex-inmates, said Thursday.
Eric Glisson, Cathy Watkins, Carlos Perez, Devon Ayers and Michael Cosme were found guilty in the 1995 shooting of livery driver Baithe Diop, who was killed in The Bronx amid a rash of 1990s cabby holdups.
While in jail, Glisson learned Diop was actually killed by the Sex Money Murder gang, and he sent a letter with that info to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.

http://nypost.com/2016/04/22/five-wrongfully-jailed-murderers-get-40m-payout/

Five wrongfully jailed ‘murderers’ get $40M payout
By Bruce Golding
New York Post
April 22, 2016 | 2:41am

New York City Man Released From Wrongful Conviction After 20 Years in Prison. 13 Alibi Witnesses Ignored By Prosecutors

Richard Rosario, 40

[From article]
A man walked free after 20 years in prison Wednesday, released from a Bronx courtroom after prosecutors conceded that long-ignored murder alibi evidence needs to be reinvestigated.
Richard Rosario — who at age 40 has literally spent half his life in prison — credited his long-awaited good fortune to his lawyers at the Exoneration Initiative and to the NBC news program “Dateline,” which has a new digital series on his case.
Rosario has insisted since his arrest that 13 alibi witnesses could prove he was in Florida at the time of the 1996 murder.
“I’ve been in prison for 20 years for a crime I didn’t commit,” Rosario tearfully told Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Torres, moments before the judge vacated his murder conviction and ordered him released without bail.
[. . .]
“My family didn’t deserve this. I didn’t deserve this, and nor did the family of the victim,” Rosario told the judge. “I hope that this conviction is not just vacated, but exoneration is given to me and my family for this crime.”
Outside court, a jubilant-looking Rosario said he was “Just feeling the moment.”
He added, “I love my lawyers. Now can I leave?”
While Rosario’s conviction has been tossed, he remains charged in the broad-daylight murder of a 16-year-old boy on a Bronx street in June 1996.
He’s been set free pending the Bronx DA’s investigation into the credibility of his 13 alibi witnesses, who said from the start that he was in Florida when victim George Collazo was shot point-blank in the face during an argument.
No forensics or physical evidence linked Rosario to the murder. But he was convicted after two witnesses identified him from a police mugshot book.
Immediately upon hearing he was being sought, and right before turning himself in, Rosario made a list of 13 people who’d seen him in Deltona, Fla., at the time of the murder.
But the police never contacted those people, his lawyers say. And even his own court-appointed attorneys failed to make contact with any of the alibi witnesses, save for the couple he was staying with.
While the couple did testify at Rosario’s trial, the trial prosecutor told jurors they were tainted by their close friendship with Rosario. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/23/man-freed-from-prison-because-prosecutors-finally-decided-to-talk-to-his-13-alibi-witnesses/

He had 13 alibi witnesses but he still spent 20 years in prison
By Kevin Fasick and Laura Italiano
New York Post
March 23, 2016 | 4:12pm

One Hundred Twenty Four Illegal Aliens Released By Homeland Security Over Past Five Years Charged With Murder

[From article]
The Center for Immigration Studies is releasing a report today showing that 124 illegal aliens who were subsequently released over the last five years by the Obama administration's Department of Homeland Security have been charged with murder.
Washington Times:
In all, some 121 immigrants who were freed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2010 and 2014 went on to be charged with a total of 135 homicide-related crimes. Another three immigrants were charged with murders in 2015, bringing to 124 the total number of murder suspects the government had, then released.
Two of the immigrants in question had even been convicted of homicide before, but they were released anyway and went on to rack up new murder charges again, the report said. The others had amassed 464 total criminal charges, ranging from drugs to drunken driving, before they landed on the homicide list.
[. . .]
ICE’s decision-making has come under fire in recent years after the agency acknowledged it regularly released tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who would go on to be charged with other serious crimes.
Just as troubling are the number of repeat-offenders whom ICE arrests and releases more than once. More than 156 immigrants with criminal records were released at least twice by ICE. Those immigrants averaged more than 11 charges per person.
[. . .]
This charade has gone on long enough. Over the last five years, 135 Americans are dead because the government refuses to protect our borders. And once in the U.S., violent criminals are allowed to continue their lives of crime because ICE and DHS, as well as sanctuary cities, refuse to enforce the law.
Make no mistake. It is perfectly legal for the government to detain illegal aliens if they are deemed a threat to American citizens. This small sampling of repeat offenders obviously qualify for detention.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/124_illegal_aliens_released_by_dhs_in_the_last_5_years_charged_with_murder.html

March 14, 2016
124 illegal aliens released by DHS in the last 5 years charged with murder
By Rick Moran

Massachusetts Man Released From Prison, After 36 Years For Wrongful Conviction

George Perrot, 48

[From article]
George Perrot became a free man yesterday, after spending nearly three quarters of his 48 years in jail for a crime he did not commit.
[. . .]
After hearing from a state prosecutor and a pair of defense lawyers, who took up Perrot’s case as part
of an Innocence Project crusade, Kane took a 15-minute break before rendering a decision on bail that was actually an eloquent and stinging rebuke of the system that conspired to throw an 18-year-old kid in jail for the rest of his life.
[. . .]
“As previously stated, the court after a rigorous review of the entire
record of this case has come to be reasonably sure that George Perrot did not physically or sexually
assault Mary Prekop.
“That finding bears heavily on the determination that the commonwealth’s case will fail to secure a conviction.”
[. . .]
After lifting his mother
over a puddle outside
the courthouse yesterday, George Perrot was asked what he wanted people to know about him.
“They don’t need to know anything about me,” he said.
“I’m free.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/peter_gelzinis/2016/02/gelzinis_judge_issues_man_s_freedom_scathing_remarks_on

Gelzinis: Judge issues man’s freedom, scathing remarks on system
Peter Gelzinis

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Five New York City Men and A Woman Released After 18 Years For Wrongful Murder Conviction

Imprisoned: Eric Glisson (pictured right, with his lawyer Peter Cross), was convicted in the 1995 killing of a livery cab driver in New York City.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248051/Eric-Glisson-Cathy-Watkins-released-jailed-17-years-murder-didnt-commit.html

Jailed for 17 YEARS for a murder they didn't commit: Prisoners finally released after being wrongly convicted of killing taxi driver
Eric Glisson and Cathy Watkins were convicted for the 1995 murder of cab driver Baith Diop
Judge throws out murder conviction - but keeps prisoners in jail over Christmas for related charges
By EDDIE WRENN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 06:27 EST, 14 December 2012 | UPDATED: 09:02 EST, 14 December 2012

* * *


New Yorker, Eric Glisson, Upon Release From 18 Years of Prison

http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/dateline/a-bronx-tale-part-1-275267140001

Dateline
NBC News
January 24, 2016 [Original broadcast June 2014]
A Bronx tale
Five men and a woman wrongfully convicted of homicide, jailed for 18 years. State gave each $3.9 million. They are suing the City of New York.

White House Continues To Give Away The Store To Iran

[From article]
The deal led to the release of four Americans being held in Iran: Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian as well as Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, the official said.
While an official confirmed Obama issued seven grants of clemency in the deal with the Iranians, spokespeople at the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately release the names of those spared in the U.S. legal system.
However, Iran’s Fars news agency released seven names, which correspond with U.S. court records on pending or recent cases.
Obama appeared to have granted rare, pre-trial pardons to three men awaiting trial in Houston for violating U.S. export laws by shipping high-tech equipment to Iran: Bahram Mechanic and Tooraj Faridi of Houston and Khosrow Afghahi of Los Angeles.
On Saturday, prosecutors moved to drop charges against Matin Sadeghi, a fugitive in the same case who was being sought in a wanted poster available on the FBI website. A court filing said the move was undertaken “based on significant foreign policy interests of the United States.” Until Saturday, Obama had never granted a pre-trial pardon to anyone, nor had his predecessor, President George W. Bush.

[. . .]

Three people already serving prison time appeared to have had their sentences cut short through the president's commutation power Saturday: Arash Ghahreman of New York, serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for planning to send fiber optic gyroscopes and electron tube to Iran and due for release in 2020; Nader Modanlo of Potomac, Md., serving an eight-year sentence for providing satellite services to Iran and due for release in 2021 and Ali Saboonchi of Parkville, Md., serving a two-year sentence for providing high-tech industrial parts to Iran and due for release in November of this year.
Prosecutors in San Diego also moved Saturday to dismiss charges against another individual charged in the same case as Ghahreman, Koorush Taherkhani, as well as a company, TIG Marine Engineering Services. Prosecutors called Taherkhani and the company “fugitives.”
[. . .]

"The United States also removed any Interpol red notices and dismissed any charges against 14 Iranians for whom it was assessed that extradition requests were unlikely to be successful," the official said.
A hacker who admitted to breaking into the computers of a Vermont-based engineering firm also was on the list of those winning clemency from Obama in the Iran deal. Nima Golestaneh was extradited from Turkey to the United States in February to face the charges in federal court in Burlington, Vt.
Just last month, Golestaneh pled guilty to wire fraud and unauthorized access to computers. He was awaiting sentencing next month. Now, that sentencing will apparently not take place, but as of mid-afternoon Saturday there was no indication in the court’s docket of any action by Obama or the Justice Department.

[. . .]

And in 2010, the U.S. and Russia brokered a prisoner swap that led to 10 people charged with acting as agents for Russia being given unusually short sentences of "time served." They were immediately flown to Vienna and exchanged for four people being held in Russian jails.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/01/iran-deal-obama-grants-clemency-to-seven-217879

Obama grants clemency to seven in Iran deal
By Josh Gerstein
01/16/16 03:38 PM EST

New York City Man Freed After 25 Years in Prison For Murder

Johnny Hincapie sobs after a judge says he will be freed from jail following a 25-year term. Photo: Steven Hirsch
[From article]

A man who spent the past 25 years in prison for the infamous 1990 subway slaying of young Utah tourist Brian Watkins has his conviction tossed Tuesday.
Johnny Hincapie, 45, sobbed as his family in the Manhattan Supreme Court gallery cheered at Justice Eduardo Pedro’s decision.
At a hearing earlier this year, Hincapie testified that he was beaten by cops and forced to sign a false confession. He was one of seven men found guilty in the sensational case. “The court does find that the defense has born their burden of proof” in terms of justifying a new trial, Padro said. “The court is going to set aside the verdict at this time. The court is going to order a new trial on these grounds.”
Hincapie’s lawyer, Ron Kuby, asked the judge to release his client without bail.
“Should Mr. Hincapie face a jury again, there is a reasonable likelihood he’ll walk out a free man,” the lawyer said.
The judge set bail at $1. The necessary paperwork was still being prepared Tuesday afternoon.
Watkins was stabbed in the heart as he tried to protect his parents from a gang of subway muggers.
The 22-year-old man and his family had just returned from the US Open when he was killed.
[. . .]



The horrific slaying galvanized the city, with an iconic New York Post front page imploring then-Mayor David Dinkins: “Dave, Do Something!”

At his previous hearing this year, Hincapie insisted through sobs that he wasn’t even on the subway platform where the killing occurred.
A surprise defense witness who read about the hearing in The Post also came forward and may have been instrumental in swaying the judge.
Mariluz Santana, 45, of Flushing saw the rowdy teens as they surrounded the Watkins family and attacked them, she testified.She knew Hincapie as an acquaintance from their neighborhood and insisted he was not among the group.
The gang robbed the family for money to get into Roseland Ballroom, where Hincapie and Santana were headed for a night of dancing. Hincapie was only 18 at the time of the murder.

http://nypost.com/2015/10/06/man-convicted-of-infamous-1990-subway-killing-ordered-freed/

Man convicted of infamous 1990 subway killing ordered freed
By Rebecca Rosenberg and Amber Sutherland
New York Post
October 6, 2015 | 1:46pm

Miami Man Released After 44 Years In Prison For Wrongful Conviction

Released: Prince Johnson, 60, was wrongly sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile for the murder of an ice cream vendor's wife but has been freed after serving 44 years in prison

[From article]
A Miami man who was wrongly sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile for the murder of an ice cream vendor's wife has been freed after serving 44 years in prison.
Prince Johnson, 60, was seen shaking his head in disbelief and clasping his hands together in the courtroom shortly before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Richard Hersch ordered his release on Friday.
Johnson has been in prison since he was 16-years-old following his 1971 trial for first-degree murder in the death of Marta Roman. He was a minor, but was tried as an adult.
[. . .]
At first, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for Johnson, but a judge sentence him to life in prison instead.
A state attorney's office spokesman, Ed Griffith, told The Miami Herald that at the time, prosecutors determined Johnson participated in the robbery that led to the fatal shooting of Roman in her husband's ice cream truck.
However, Griffith said both the prosecutor and the public defender agreed that it was not Johnson, but another defendant, who actually shot Roman.
Gale Lewis, supervisory attorney in the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, said Johnson's case had been rushed through the courts in less than one month.


Rejoicing: Johnson's family and aunt Kathleen Basten, left, openly rejoice after the verdict is read out and they realize he will be released.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3094435/Judge-orders-release-man-sentenced-life-teen.html

'He missed his whole life': Man who was jailed aged 16 for a murder he did not commit is finally freed 44 years later
Prince Johnson, 60, was convicted of armed robbery and murder in 1971
Johnson was just a minor when he was tried and sentenced as an adult
Both the State attorney and prosecutors had argued it was unlawful
New rulings require new sentencing hearings for juveniles given life terms
By BELINDA ROBINSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and AP
PUBLISHED: 15:25 EST, 23 May 2015 | UPDATED: 02:58 EST, 25 May 2015

Virginia Man Released After 29 Years For Wrongful Rape Conviction

Free: Michael McAlister, 58, who has spent the last 29 years in prison, has been released after it was revealed he was wrongly convicted in 1986 for attacking a woman in a Richmond, Virginia, laundromat. 

[From article]

A Virginia man who spent 29 years in prison for an attempted rape he did not commit has been pardoned by the governor.
It was revealed Michael McAlister, 58, was wrongly convicted in 1986 when a serial rapist, believed to be Norman Bruce Derr, confessed to the Richmond attack in 2004.
Wednesday's pardon comes five days before a scheduled hearing that could have resulted in Michael McAlister being held indefinitely under Virginia's civil commitment law for treatment as a violent sex offender.
Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe said in a written statement that overwhelming evidence shows McAlister is innocent.
McAlister was initially convicted of the February 1986, abduction and attempted rape of a woman who was dragged at knifepoint from an apartment complex laundry room.
The victim identified McAlister as the attacker from a photo lineup that did not include a picture of a serial rapist Derr, who is now believed to be the real perpetrator.
McAlister's sister, Denise Haas, 62, who drove with their mother, Rebecca McAlister to pick him up from prison, told the Washington Post: 'I am one of the happiest women in the whole wide world right now, next to my mother. We're going directly home, so he can eat some of his mother's home-baked cookies.' 

[. . .]

The 22-year-old victim managed to see part of his face by pulling up a mask.
McAlister, who had been known to the police for public indecency and drunken incidents, looked remarkably like the police sketch that was later released.  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3080665/Va-man-wrongfully-convicted-attempted-rape-pardoned.html

Innocent man jailed for 29 years for attempted rape is pardoned after it's revealed he was convicted because he looked just like sex offender who DID commit the crime
Michael McAlister, 58, was convicted of attempted rape and abduction
Was overturned when a serial rapist confessed to the 1986 attack in 2004
Victim identified McAlister in photo line-up that did not include new suspect
Could have been held indefinitely under Virginia's violent sex offender laws
His sister said they were taking him straight home so he could have his 'mother's home-baked cookies'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 17:05 EST, 13 May 2015 | UPDATED: 03:30 EST, 14 May 2015

Brooklyn, NY Man Freed After 24 Years in Prison For a Wrongful Conviction

Rosean Hargrave, who spent nearly 24 years in prison, his conviction was overturned.

[From article]
A Brooklyn man who was convicted of a 1991 murder after he was identified in a lineup conducted by discredited ​NYPD ​homicide detective Louis Scarcella was poised to walk out of court a free man Tuesday after a judge overturned his conviction with a decision that sharply criticized ​the now-retired cop.
Brooklyn Supreme Court ​Justice ShawnDya Simpson tossed the conviction of Rosean Hargrave, 40, who has been behind bars for 23 years​, ​convicted of killing a correction officer in a botched carjacking.
“The revelation of Detective Scarcella’s malfeasance in fabricating false identification evidence gravely undermines the evidence that convicted the defendant in this case,” Simpson wrote in her decision.

[. . .]

Simpson’s decision pointed out that Hargrave’s fingerprints weren’t found on the car the correction officer was shot in or the bicycle used by the shooter — and that the only evidence against him was a lineup conducted by Scarcella.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office is reviewing over 70 of Scarcella’s homicide cases, but the office fought to keep Hargrave’s conviction in place.
“Scarcella has been regarded as a legend in the NYPD for his number of homicide arrests,” Simpson said in court.
“There’s a saying that ‘When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’”

http://nypost.com/2015/04/14/man-convicted-after-discredited-cops-lineup-has-his-conviction-overturned/

Man convicted after discredited cop’s lineup has conviction overturned
By Josh Saul
New York Post
April 14, 2015 | 1:46pm

White House Commutes 22 Drug Convictions

[From article]
Note that, in every single case, a federal prosecutor had the discretion to bring a lower charge or seek a lesser penalty, but did not. In every case, escape valves from imposing a mandatory minimum sentence existed, since a federal judge can “depart downward” in sentencing if circumstances warrant -- that is, if under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 a convicted drug trafficker cooperates with the government or meets “specific criteria relating to criminal history, violence, lack of injury to others, and leadership.” Apparently, no such circumstances were presented in these 22 cases. So what was the compelling reason for freeing these specific, major drug traffickers? By all indications, there were none.
[. . .]
Indeed, drug trafficking has been proliferating under this president at a rate unseen before his tenure.
[. . .]
In addition to sending the absurd signal that drug abuse, broadly construed, is actually “recreation” of some kind, this president has literally begun opening the prison doors to those who have helped kill American kids in large numbers -- through high level drug trafficking.
[. . .]
Which only returns us to the opening question, what message is this president sending? The answer is: a message of profound indifference to rule of law, antipathy to America’s families and communities and the values that they most dearly revere, including protection of their children and preservation of public safety.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/04/beware_the_jury_of_one.html

April 2, 2015
Beware the Jury of One
By Robert B. Charles

White Nevada Woman Released From 30 Years of Prison After Wrongful Conviction

Cathy Woods, 64,
[From article]
Prosecutors are dropping the case against a Nevada woman who spent more than 30 years in prison for a 1976 murder before a judge ordered a new trial based on recently discovered DNA evidence, the district attorney said Friday.
Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks told reporters that there will be no retrial of Cathy Woods in the fatal stabbing of Michelle Mitchell on the edge of the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.
A judge threw out the conviction in September after new DNA evidence linked the Reno crime scene to an Oregon inmate who now faces murder charges in California in a string of killings about the same time.
[. . .]
Woods, now 64, was convicted in 1980 and again five years later. The convictions were based largely on the confession she made in 1979 at the psychiatric hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, where her mother committed her months earlier.
Prosecutors at those trials argued that only Mitchell’s killer could have known the information Woods provided to police in her confession.
[. . .]
Pusich said Woods doesn’t remember acknowledging the killing while hospitalized in March 1979.
“I’m told it was a product of wanting to get a private room,” Pusich told the Associated Press earlier. “She was being told she wasn’t sufficiently dangerous to qualify, and within a short period she was claiming she had killed a woman in Reno.”

http://nypost.com/2015/03/06/woman-exonerated-after-30-years-in-jail-for-76-murder/

DNA frees woman after 30 years locked up for murder
By Associated Press
New York Post
March 6, 2015 | 2:39pm

Release of Medicaid and Medicare Physician Data Cosmetic Act Keeping Patients Confused

[From article]
But the new policy will accomplish little beyond confusing patients and embarrassing physicians.
The problem is that patients cannot intelligently interpret the CMS data.
[. . .]
The CMS records won’t help patients assess the quality of the services provided or compare one doctor with another.
[. . .]
CMS’s release of the records will have at least one clear benefit: helping to identify fraud and abuse.
[. . .]
But these records are already available to law enforcement and regulatory authorities. In fact, many physicians with unusual billing patterns in the 2012 record release had already been disciplined by state medical boards and/or law enforcement. Yet, Medicare continued to pay physicians who had been sanctioned, lost their licenses, or had been convicted of fraud and theft and spent time in jail—a failure of the system’s fraud-detection procedures that won’t be solved by the public release of physician payment records.
[. . .]
But most physicians take their professional duties seriously. They make a good faith effort to perform services for the best interests of their patients and not for personal gain. They don’t deserve to be pilloried based on misleading information. Until Medicare payment records can be made useful and readily intelligible, CMS should suspend their release. If CMS insists on going ahead, it should at least help people understand what they’re looking at.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0224jz.html

JOEL ZINBERG
When Transparency Isn’t Transparent
A planned release of Medicare and Medicaid physician data will likely confuse patients and the public.
24 February 2015

Two Ohio Men Freed After Serving 39 Years For Wrongful Homicide Conviction

Free men: Wiley Bridgeman, below, and Ricky Jackson, above, were released Friday from Cuyahoga County Jail after 39 years behind bars. They were originally on death row, but had their sentences commuted to life following a Supreme Court decision in 1978 outlawing the death penalty as it then existed.




[From article]
Two men who faced the death penalty for a 1975 murder have walked free from prison when all the charges against them were dismissed after a witness said his testimony was 'all lies'.
Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman, 57 and 60, were convicted of murdering Harry Franks, a businessman in Cleveland, Ohio - based largely on the testimony of a 12-year-old who said he saw the murder.
The two, along with Bridgeman's brother Ronnie, were given death sentences after Eddie Vernon testified in court.
[. . .]
Two men who faced the death penalty for a 1975 murder have walked free from prison when all the charges against them were dismissed after a witness said his testimony was 'all lies'.
Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman, 57 and 60, were convicted of murdering Harry Franks, a businessman in Cleveland, Ohio - based largely on the testimony of a 12-year-old who said he saw the murder.
The two, along with Bridgeman's brother Ronnie, were given death sentences after Eddie Vernon testified in court.
[. . .]
In the initial court hearings, Vernon said he was on a bus with other schoolchildren when he heard gunshots near the a grocery store called Cut-Rite.
Other children on the bus have said Vernon would not have been able to see anything from his seat - and he has since admitted that was true.
He now claims detectives talked him into testifying, then said if he claimed he was lying his parents could be put in prison for perjury.
When he dismissed Jackson's case, Judge Richard McMonagle said, 'Life is filled with small victories, and this is a big one.'
'The English language doesn't even fit what I'm feeling,' Jackson, 57, said as he exited the building Friday. 'I'm on an emotional high.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2843670/Prosecutors-drop-charges-3-men-40-years-later.html

Free after 39 years: Emotional moment former death row inmates wrongly convicted of murder in 1975 walk free after child witness admits he lied after 'police coercion'
Ricky Jackson, 57, and Wiley Bridgeman, 60, were convicted of murder
Originally faced the death penalty for killing businessman in Cleveland, Ohio
Sentences were commuted to life in 1978 following Supreme Court ruling
Men served jail sentence until today - based on 12-year-old's testimony
Convictions were quashed after witness recanted his original account
By Kieran Corcoran for MailOnline and Associated Press
Published: 12:57 EST, 21 November 2014 | Updated: 08:57 EST, 22 November 2014

Updated: Brooklyn, NY Man Freed After 28 Years in Prison for Wrongful Conviction, Second Man Died In Jail

Posted October 15, 2014 8:21 PM ET; Last updated October 18, 2014 5:22 PM ET


David McCallum, seen walking out of the courthouse with his mother Ernestine McCallum, spent 28 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. 
Photo: Byron Smith

[From article]
New Yorker who served 29 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit walked free today after his conviction was thrown out.
David McCallum, who has spent nearly two-thirds of his life in prison, sobbed into his hands as Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D'Emic vacated his conviction on Wednesday.
McCallum, 45, said he was feeling mixed emotions because his fellow convict, Willie Stuckey, had passed away behind bars in 2001 before he could see their names cleared.
It's 'a bittersweet moment, because I'm walking out alone,' he told reporters outside the court.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2794111/NYC-prosecutor-Nix-convictions-85-killing.html

New Yorker who served 29 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit walks free - but laments that his fellow 'convict' didn't live to see their names cleared
David McCallum, 45, sobbed as a judge threw out his conviction Wednesday
As he left court surrounded by family, he called it a 'bittersweet moment' because he was walking out without his friend Willie Stuckey
He and friend Stuckey were convicted of murdering Nathan Blenner, 20, in Brooklyn in 1985 after they made false confessions
Stuckey passed away in prison in 2001
The convictions were overturned after the judge ruled that the confessions were false and peppered with details apparently supplied by police
Their cause had been championed by ex-boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter
By Associated Press and MailOnline Reporter
Published: 14:08 EST, 15 October 2014 | Updated: 16:40 EST, 15 October 2014

* * *


Free man: McCallum walks out of the Supreme Court building in Brooklyn after being exonerated when a judge determined that his conviction was based on a false confession when he was just 16.

[From article]
A Brooklyn man locked away for 28 years on a flimsy murder rap walked free today after a judge vacated his wrongful conviction.
[. . .]
David McCallum went to jail for a kidnapping and murder he did not commit.
After years of fighting for his freedom — a cause championed by the wrongfully convicted boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter — McCallum was finally given a second lease on life.
When Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Matthew D’Emic said “I will dismiss the indictments” McCallum dropped his head to the table in front of him, remaining motionless as his lawyer Oscar Michelen rubbed his back.
The judge also vacated the conviction of Willie Stuckey who was found guilty along with McCallum.
Stuckey died in prison in 2001. Stuckey’s mother was in court to hear the news.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/15/man-wrongfully-convicted-of-murder-freed-after-28-years/

Man wrongfully convicted of murder freed after 28 years
By Josh Saul and Leonard Greene
New York Post
October 15, 2014 | 2:48pm

CA Woman Released After 17 Years in Prison For Wrongful Homicide Conviction

Mellen's youngest children were seven and nine when she was arrested.

Jessica has been engaged for eight years but has waited for her mother's release until she began planning the wedding and the pair now plan to go wedding dress shopping.

[From article]
A woman who spent 17 years in prison after being convicted of murder in the death of a homeless man was exonerated Friday by a Los Angeles County judge who said she should not spend another minute behind bars.
The courtroom burst into applause after Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold overturned the conviction of Susan Mellen, who was to be processed for release from the suburban Torrance courthouse.
Mellen had entered the courtroom in tears, and her children also wept.
[. . .]
Mellen's case was investigated by Deidre O'Connor, head of a project known as Innocence Matters that seeks to free people who are wrongly convicted.
O'Connor said in an earlier interview that she found that Mellen was convicted in 1998 of the 1997 killing based solely on the testimony of a notorious liar.
Mellen, a mother of three, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2788356/Woman-exonerated-murder-case-17-years.html

Mother-of-three exonerated for the 1997 murder of a homeless man after spending SEVENTEEN years in prison
Susan Mellen was convicted in 1998 of murdering Richard Daly
Her conviction was based solely on one woman's testimony
That woman, June Patti, was a known drug addict and habitual liar
Ms Patti died in 2006 and on Friday a judge overturned Mellen's conviction
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 12:34 EST, 10 October 2014 | UPDATED: 09:48 EST, 11 October 2014

NYC Man Shot 15 Minutes After Being Released From Prison

Jerome A. Mack, Suspect


Edgar Wilson, Suspect
 
More evidence that snitching does not pay.

[From article]
A Manhattan man was sprung from an upstate prison Thursday after serving 15 years — only to be shot 15 minutes later by a thug he snitched on, law enforcement sources told The Post.
The 33-year-old man was released from Otisville State Prison at 9:45 a.m. with a train ticket for a trip to a halfway house in Manhattan.
But when he got outside, someone in a white Hyundai offered him a ride — an offer he quickly accepted.
After about two miles, the car pulled over and a second person hopped out of the trunk, pulled out a gun and fired two shots at the newly freed man, police sources said.
[. . .]
The victim — who served time for criminal sale of a controlled substance, weapons and assault — identified the shooter.
The guman had a beef with the victim for snitching on him, sources said.
Cops tracked the two suspects to the Upper East Side and arrested them Thursday evening.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/09/man-released-from-prison-shot-by-guy-he-snitched-on/

Man shot 15 minutes after finishing 15-year jail term
By Shawn Cohen, Larry Celona and Joe Tacopino
New York Post
October 9, 2014 | 10:52pm

Son Of NY Murder Victim Opposes Release Of Convicted Killer

[From article]
A Westchester man who was 6 when three ghouls beat, raped and fatally shot his mother and another woman in a 1977 home invasion is leading a petition drive to deny them parole.
[. . .]
While the children were herded into another room and listened in horror, the two mothers were brutally beaten, raped and then shot several times.
“The last words I heard my mother say were her begging for the life of her children,”

http://nypost.com/2014/01/07/slain-womans-son-fights-to-keep-her-murderer-behind-bars/

Slain woman’s son fights to keep her murderer behind bars
By Erin Calabrese
January 7, 2014 | 5:48pm

Obama Commutes Sentence of Deval Patrick's First Cousin

[From article]
One of the eight federal prisoners granted sentence commutations by President Barack Obama Thursday is a first cousin of Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass), one of the president's most devoted supporters on the national political scene.
Reynolds Allen Wintersmith Jr. was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in Illinois federal court in 1994 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute cocaine and cocaine base and possession with intent to distribute crack. He was 19 at the time of his arrest and 17 at the time he got involved running drugs for the Gangster Disciples gang. He is 39 today and has spent the last 19 years in prison.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/12/obama-commuted-sentence-of-deval-patrick-kin-179958.html

Obama commuted sentence of Deval Patrick kin
By JOSH GERSTEIN

12/19/13 4:53 PM EST

Politico

Texas Man Freed After Serving 25 Years of Wrongful Conviction; Prosecutorial Misconduct

[From article]
In August 1986, Morton's wife, Christine, was bludgeoned to death by a blunt object at their Williamson County, Texas home while he was at work - but still, suspicion fell on him.
He said that an intruder must have been responsible, but prosecutors accused of him of killing her after she refused to have sex with him on his birthday. He was convicted based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to life in prison.
[. . .]
The new DNA evidence showed that he had indeed been wrongfully convicted, and last month, Ken Anderson pleaded no contest to criminal contempt for deliberately withholding exculpatory evidence.
He stepped down from his position as a judge and agreed to serve 10 days in jail, although he served five due to good behavior laws - far, far less time than Morton was forced to endure.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2518059/Michael-Morton-Man-spent-25-years-prison-wrongfully-convicted-wifes-murder-reconnects-son.html

Man who spent 25 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of wife's murder reveals how he has reconnected with the son who was too embarrassed to visit him behind bars
Michael Morton was found guilty of killing his wife Christine at their Texas home in 1986 - even though he had been at work
He was sentenced to life and saw his son Eric, then 3, twice a year
As a teenager, Eric decided he did not want to visit his father anymore
In 2011, Morton was exonerated after evidence which had been held back by prosecutors contained DNA linking another man to the murder
Morton and his son reunited after 10 years and are now close
By LYDIA WARREN
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 09:24 EST, 4 December 2013 | UPDATED: 09:31 EST, 4 December 2013