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Read more about this film project.

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Read article at KALB from Alexandria, LA

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While commendable that the Kings County DA opened their records, Families of the Wrongfully Convicted asks DA Eric Gonzalez to stand behind his report and address the failures of the Brooklyn DA to deal with the backlog of cases, and continue to let the actions of former NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella, resulting in scores of wrongful convictions, go without review and criticism. We ask DA Gonzalez to take a stronger hand supervising the appellate ADA’s who run rampant in the Kings County DA’s office, almost always opposing motions to overturn wrongful convictions. It is where wrongful conviction cases go to die.

Given the demonstrated rampant prosecutorial misconduct connected to this small universe of cases, the need to ensure the creation of a Commission on Prosecutor Conduct (CPC) could not be made clearer. NYS created a CPC , but it has been mired in legal challenges. The legislature should move to address existing issues with the CPC as drafted to ensure it is made a reality.

The Report also highlights a series of needed reforms in the area of false confessions. None of the confessions in these cases had been assessed for reliability. Law enforcement’s use of deception led to a series of coerced confessions of the actually innocent. Senator Myrie has introduced legislation that would ban police deception and ensure the courts assess the reliability of confession evidence before it is admitted. This bill should be made law immediately.

We call on NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and First Deputy Ben Tucker to follow suit and review cases of wrongful convictions, review the role of Detective Louis Scarcella in these terrible tragedies and meet to discuss reforms that can help prevent wrongful convictions. Especially, NYPD policies on interrogations that lead to false confessions, which were cited in 36% of these cases.

We ask that the NY State Court of Appeals review the role of the judiciary in wrongful convictions, in which judges have allowed tainted, blatantly false testimony from police and prosecutors go before jury after jury after jury.

Read the full report here.

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NY State Incarcerated Have Been Quarantined Since March 14, with No Visits Allowed and Only 1 Mask.

Contact Governor Cuomo to Allow Visits NOW

Click here for the DOCC guidelines

NYSDOC issued a new policy for visits. NYSDOC should NOT be allowed to make guidelines and follow them as they see fit. Officers are Not wearing masks. Offenders are have been given 1 mask. Officers are NOT required to be tested. They will NOT test an offender unless he/she shows symptoms. The fact is offenders have been quarantined since March 14, 2020. At this point the ONLY way an offender can contract COVID-19 is from the officers and staff. Just as they want everyone out here to get a COVID-19 or antibody test, they should be doing the same in prisons for both offenders and staff.

They are using COVID-19 as a tool to deter visits. For example, they “cancelled” a Christian festival. No visitors. But the offenders were allowed to go to the mess hall and eat together. If an offender is in Clinton, a family member will have to travel 10 hours round trip for a 2 hour visit? A child won’t be allowed to touch his mom or dad? A mom can’t touch her son or daughter? Spouses can touch each other? No FRP, when that is the easiest place to disinfect for the next visit? There are measures that can be implemented such as visitors being required to present proof of a negative result for COVID-19. Remember, these guidelines are for Phase 3.

Of course, there should be masks. Of course, there should be social distancing. Of course, there should be temperature checks. But this goes too far. It is punitive. I am not going for it either. I will be contacting my elected officials. If this is important to you, I encourage you to do the same. I have also contacted The Alliance of Families for Justice (347 973 0580). They said they want to hear from families. They are in the process a preparing letter to DOCCS and Governor Cuomo.

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Family members of men currently incarcerated as well as exonerees brought chicken, salad and pasta to provide lunch for doctors, nurses, therapists, aides and administrators on Saturday, May 2 at 11:30 am at the Emergency room entrance at 121 Dekalb Avenue, alongside the tent.

Nicole Hamilton, whose husband Derrick Hamilton served 21 years in prison before being exonerated in 2016, said, “We have all been through so much tragedy in our lives we feel a special kinship to those healthcare workers fighting to save victims of the Coronavirus. We just wanted to express our deepest admiration for these incredible people and our sympathy for the thousands of families struggling through this terrible pandemic.”

Hamilton was joined by co-founder of the group, Kevin Smith, who served 26 years in prison, as well as Erica Cruz, wife of Nelson Cruz, who remains in prison over 20 years, a victim of NYPD Detective Scarcella; Desiree Jiles, Paula Hinton, wife of Leonard Hinton; Janice Williams, wife of Sampson Saunders; Makeba Broxton, wife Kariem Broxton.

The group plans to deliver lunch next week to emergency room staff at
Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

Families of the Wrongfully Convicted is a grassroots advocacy effort to raise public awareness about the incidence of wrongful convictions, the plight of families of those who are currently incarcerated, and provide support to men and women who have been paroled and those exonerated.

Contact: Nicole Hamilton, toool2009@yahoo.com, 646-371-3411
Kevin Smith, rennysmith12161@gmail.com, 347-388-7974
Lonnie Soury, Lsoury@soury.com, 917-519-4521

www.wrongfullyconvicted.info

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By TREVOR BOYER  and LEONARD GREENE| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |

MAY 16, 2019 | 6:46 PM

Kevin Smith, who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, is pictured Thursday in Brooklyn. Smith said his case has been with the Brooklyn Attorney office’s Conviction Review Unit for five years. (Trevor Boyer/for New York Daily News)

Brooklyn’s vaunted Conviction Review Unit is no longer functional, leaving cases of innocent prisoners in limbo, critics charged Thursday.

The unit — established in 2014 under Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson — was hailed as a national model for its work overturning 21 convictions in its first three years.

But the wheels of justice have ground to a near halt, with only four convictions overturned since the beginning of 2017.

“This Conviction Review Unit is broken,” said Lonnie Soury, a co-founder of Families of the Wrongfully Convicted, which held a rally outside the office of Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez.

“It needs attention. Granted it needs more money, but it needs good people.” Soury said. “You don’t get ahead by freeing the innocent, but in fact, you should. Every innocent person that has been incarcerated means a criminal is out in our community.”

Soury said Gonzalez has failed to live up to the promises he made to 

follow Thompson’s lead on innocence issues and misconduct cases. Thompson, Brooklyn’s first black district attorney, died from cancer in 2016 after less than three years in office.

Doreen Giuliana, 58, of Brooklyn, said her son John Giuca, 36, was convicted of felony murder in 2003 and spent 14 years in upstate prisons.

His case was overturned in 2018 because a prosecutor withheld evidence, but he has been held on Rikers Island while the DA’s office decides whether to retry him.

Giuilana said her son has been offered a plea deal that includes a sentence of time served, but he refused to plead guilty.

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