“We Have Spent Decades In Prison Awaiting Justice”
Call On Governor Hochul to Sign Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act
Wrongfully convicted and their families call upon District Attorney Conviction Review Units (CRU) to speed up processing of backlogged cases as victims languish in prison for decades. Ask City council to provide judicial, prosecutorial and police oversight. Press conference and rally at New York City Hall on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, at 10:30 am.
These CRUs often spend years reviewing cases and reject most. Also, among the concerns are that Judges in trial courts routinely deny innocence claims after long delays. NYPD still does not consistently record custodial interrogations in precincts, and police investigators can legally lie to those being interrogated which can lead to coerced, false confessions.
“It is taking far too long to review cases while many innocent people are spending decades behind bars. Speed up and move these cases forward,” says Derrick Hamilton, co-founder and Director of Legal Affairs of Families and Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted. “For every wrongfully convicted man or woman languishing for decades in prison, the real perpetrators remain in our community continuing to commit serious crimes. We must not have these families suffer anymore. The promise of a conviction review is in most cases a promise never kept.”
With over $360 million in wrongful conviction settlements paid by New York City since 2016, the City Council should step up and take a more active role in criminal justice reform, providing oversight to the CRUs, police and judiciary. The Council should provide additional funding to the CRUs to add more attorneys and investigators to deal with the backlogs.
Families and Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted are also calling for Governor Hochul to sign the “Challenging Wrongful Conviction Act” S. 215 / A. 2878 recently passed by both houses of the New York State legislature The new law would provide the right to post conviction legal counsel; enable those who have pleaded guilty to seek to overturn their convictions based upon actual innocence; allow for post-conviction discovery and remove procedural roadblocks to relief.
Justice Delayed
In Brooklyn, victims of infamous NYPD detective Louis Scarcella have been waiting decades for justice. James Jenkins has served 36 years in prison, his Scarcella case was in the CRU for years, and Judge Sharen Hudson has slow moved a hearing for over two years. Kevin Smith served 27 years in a Scarcella-related case, while his CRU review has gone on close to 10 years through three Brooklyn DAs: Hynes, Thompson and Gonzalez. Nelson Cruz, another Scarcella victim, served 27 years. His innocence pleas went unheeded at the DA, and his innocence hearing was shockingly denied by the judge who was found to be suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg must engage in a much more vigorous effort to right so many wrongs. He needs to address a huge backlog of cases, properly staff the CRU and treat the epidemic of wrongful convictions in New York as important. Danny Rincon has served 30 years of a 158-year sentence. He awaits awaiting action from the DA.
In Queens, DA Melinda Katz has established a CRU led by a defense attorney, but it needs more staff and a larger budget as the process is too slow moving. Harold Marshall remains imprisoned after 25 years, and Stephan Brathwaite’s case languished in CRU until he was finally paroled after serving 30 years. The Queens D.A. opposed his parole.
In the Bronx, DA Darcel Clark has a barely functional CRU, and has not allowed open discovery. Joe Sanchez has served 16 years after terrible prosecutorial misconduct; Manny Lugo remains in prison for 25 years even though another man was convicted of the murder.
| WHEN: | Tuesday, September 19, 2023, at 10:30 am |
| WHERE: | Broadway and Murray Street, West Gate to New York’s City Hall |
| WHO: | Derrick Hamilton (21), Kevin Smith (27), Sundhe Moses (18), Shabaka Shakur (26), Nelson Cruz (25), Jeffrey Deskovic (16), Frans Sital (30), Bruce Bryant (30), family of John Giuca (15+) and Terrence Rice (30), Tyrone Johnson (20+), Stephan Brathwaite (20+), Kareem Broxton (20+), Robert Jones (20+), Lorenzo Johnson (21), James Davis (15+), civil rights attorney Ron Kuby, Elizabeth Felber, head of Legal Aid’s Wrongful Conviction Unit, Dr. Tawana Gilford, Stop False Police Reporting. |
| WHAT: | Call on D.A.CRUs to provide transparency and speed up case reviews. Call on City Council to provide oversight to DA CRUs, NYPD and trial courts. Call on Governor Hochul to sign the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act and commute Pam Smart’s (33) LWOP sentence. |
https://wrongfullyconvicted.info
COMPTROLLER OF CITY OF NEW YORK ANNUAL CLAIMS REPORT WRONGFUL CONVCITON SETTLEMENTS
Read here
FY 2022 $86.8 million in Settlements
Samuel Brownridge -25 years (1994-2019) $13.0 million
Pablo Fernandez-24 years (1995 – 2019 )$12.0 million
Shawn Williams24 years (1993 – 2018) $10.5 million
Rafael Ruiz -25 years (1984 – 2009) $8.99 million
Gerard Domond-28 years (1998-2016) $8.4 million
Eric William Rodriguez-21.17 years (1999 -2021) $7.0 million
Grant Williams -23 years (1996-2019) $7.0 million
Julio Negron- 9.75 years (2006-2015) $6.25 million
Bladimil Arroyo- 17.5 years (2001-2019) $5.35 million
Calvin Buari -22 years (1995-2017) $4.0 million
Rhian Taylor -8.75 years (2008-2017) $3.0 million
Triston Pinheiro-2.83 years (2005-2008) $500,000
Phillip Boykin- 3 years (2016-2019) $390,000
Alfred Edwards- 1 year (2011-2012) $175,000
Danny Ponder- 2.5 years (2018-2021) $150,000
Neal Watts-5 years (2013-2018) $100,000
TOTAL: 242.5 years $86.8 million
Chart 7: Reversed Conviction Payouts, FYs 2016–2022
FY 2016 – $62.2 Million
FY 2017 – $99.9 Million
FY 2018- $33.3 Million
FY 2019 – $20.3 Million
FY 2021 – $59 Million
FY 2022- $86.8 Million
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS OPINION
N.Y.’s wrongful conviction act: Hochul must sign this bill into law
By Derrick Hamilton
New York Daily News
Published: Aug 13, 2023
Wrongful Conviction Act Will Reduce Crime Not Increase it!
“Finality, according to the dictionary is an action or event that ends something irreversibly. One often hears the term used by prosecutors arguing against overturning a conviction. As in, “why do we need to keep litigating cases of innocence after juries and judges have ruled against the defendant for years?”
It is now used by those opposed to the “Challenging Wrongful Conviction Act” S. 215 / A. 2878 recently passed by both houses of the New York State legislature and awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. The term has nothing to do with whether a person is innocent, it is simply an expression of exasperation rather than justice.
Of course, the ultimate form of finality is left for those on death row. Tragically, we have come to learn that hundreds of men and women have had their death sentences commuted after new evidence questioned their convictions, not to mention the real possibility that innocent people have been executed.
In every wrongful conviction, the wrong person is imprisoned and the actual perpetrator of the crime, often murder, serious assault and rape are free to remain in our community. Let me repeat this, in every wrongful conviction, and hundreds have been overturned in New York State in recent years, the criminals went free, and an innocent person spent decades in prison, ruining their lives, those of their families, friends, relatives, and our communities.
In fact, that is exactly what happened to me. I served 21 years in maximum security prisons in NY State for a crime I was convicted of wrongfully, until I was paroled in 2012, and later fully exonerated, (. The men) the men who got away with the murder remained in the Bedford Stuyvesant community and went on to commit more crimes until they were themselves murdered in drug related circumstances. Case after case, the bad guys got away with murder. Look no further than the Central Park 5 case, when another man, Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist, and murderer confessed to acting alone in the attack. Or the case of Jeffrey Deskovic, a 16-year-old Westchester high school student who spent 15 years in prison until DNA cleared him of the murder of a young friend. The real killer went on to rape and kill a young mother soon afterward.
In New York, 7 real perpetrators have been identified in wrongful conviction cases proven by DNA evidence and went on to commit 11 additional crimes, including 3 rapes, 6 murders and 2 other violent crimes.
According to the Innocence Project, of the nation’s 375 DNA exonerations, actual assailants were identified in 165 cases. Those perpetrators went on to be convicted of 154 additional violent crimes, including 83 sexual assaults, 36 murders, and 35 other violent crimes while the innocent sat behind bars for their earlier offenses.
In whose interests is it to keep innocent people imprisoned at a cost of lost lives, ruined families, and criminals free in our communities? Not only do wrongful convictions lead to more crime, but there is also a deep financial cost to State and City taxpayers as wrongful conviction settlements have reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Of course, no amount of many could bring me back the 21 years I and my family lost because of the actions of notorious Brooklyn NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella.
The new law provides right to counsel to help those go before a judge; enable those who have pleaded guilty to seek to overturn their convictions based upon new evidence and innocence; allow for post-conviction discovery and remove procedural roadblocks to relief. It was my very wrongful conviction case, People v. Hamilton, in which the Appellate Court ruled in 2014 that a defendant can make a freestanding claim of actual innocence in New York.
If signed, many wrongfully convicted New Yorkers who were left little choice but to plead guilty, might finally have their day in court, and those whose innocence hearings were tragically halted in 2018, when the NYS Court of Appeals ruled to prevent those who pleaded guilty from challenging their convictions, might now be able to present evidence of their innocence.
By signing the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act, Governor Kathy Hochul will be taking a stand for public safety as well as justice. Finality be gone.
Derrick Hamilton served 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was fully exonerated while on parole in 2015. He is the Deputy Director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University, and Co-Founder of Families and Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted.
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