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PETITION:
https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/chanel-lewis-a-fair-trial-and-investigation
"Background on Misconduct: "Under former Queens DA Richard Brown and Homicide Bureau Brad Leventhal's watch, a local judge has denied three motions that have brought new evidence of racial profiling and prosecutorial misconduct to the case of Chanel Lewis - a Black, disabled man from Howard Beach who was convicted of murder on April 1st and has received a sentence of life without parole. Chanel, a graduate from the Martin De Porres School for developmentally delayed children, was handed a guilty verdict after just five hours of jury deliberation in his second trial, the first having been declared a mistrial with a hung jury. One of the jurors from his second trial has already come forward anonymously to say he is concerned they may have convicted the wrong man, claiming that they were never given access to Chanel’s taped confessions, and that when the jury alerted Judge Michael Aloise that they were deadlocked, he pressured them to come to a verdict that night, anyway. Chanel’s conviction comes on the heels of an anonymous tip that has revealed the existence of a previously unreported NYPD database of DNA swabs of over 350 Black men from the neighborhood. Many of these men, like Chanel, had no prior contact with the criminal justice system and were questioned and swabbed despite the fact that the NYPD’s investigation named two “‘jacked up’ white men” as its initial suspects. Months after Vetrano’s murder, Chanel became a suspect after being profiled by an officer in the neighborhood who followed him for ‘looking suspicious.’ In both trials, Chanel’s defense has pointed to the ways that the collection and transportation of DNA samples from the crime scene were mishandled by the NYPD. And they say that during both trials, they were not alerted to the existence of the DNA database by the prosecution at all, a clear Brady violation. To anyone who followed the Central Park Five case in Chanel’s very own city three decades ago, this will sound painfully familiar. There is a long history of faulty, inconsistent DNA testing and coerced confessions being used to secure the false convictions of Black people in this country. As a Black man and a disabled person who was not granted access to the support or advocacy that was his constitutional right, Chanel Lewis' case sets a precedent for continued profiling within a racially biased and unbalanced judiciary system."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Parabon had issued a report to the NYPD after conducting biogeographic ancestry and phenotyping analysis on DNA lifted from the 30-year-old Howard Beach jogger’s cellhone, the filing alleges. Since-resigned prosecutor Brad Leventhal allegedly “intentionally” hid Parabon’s report — and the “paper trail” showing that the NYPD used the company that wasn’t licensed in New York state, the court papers claim. Testimony from detectives at trial “was carefully tailored to maintain a shroud of secrecy over the racial dragnet,” — with one detective allegedly lying at least once on the stand, the filing claims. Lewis’ right to a fair trial was violated and had the new evidence come out earlier he may not have been convicted, his attorneys argued. “While the truth of what happened in this case remains unknown, what is known is that the truth has been willfully, intentionally, and maliciously suppressed, in order to guarantee a conviction,” the filing charges."
STORY: "Chanel Lewis’ conviction for killing Queens jogger Karina Vetrano should be scrapped over ‘racial dragnet’: lawyers," By Priscilla DeGregory, published by The Daily Post, on
August 22, 2023.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Lewis’ lawyers claim that DNA methods were hidden at trial and deprived Lewis of a fair trial."
GIST: "Chanel Lewis — the man serving a life sentence for the murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano — should have his conviction overturned because cops used an unfair “racial dragnet” targeting black men before landing on him as their prime suspect, his attorneys argued in new court papers.
Prosecutors allegedly failed to disclose the use of the so-called dragnet — in which the NYPD conducted DNA testing on “hundreds of black men” — before arresting Lewis, now 27, in the high-profile 2016 slaying, according to the documents filed Monday.
Detectives used the controversial testing method all because Parabon Nanolabs — “an outside, unlicensed lab” — had concluded “that the DNA profile of the perpetrator generated from the crime scene belonged to a black man,” Lewis’ lawyers, Ronald Kuby and Rhidaya Trivedi, wrote in the filing.
“How this racial dragnet led specifically to Chanel Lewis’ door remains unknown,” the filing states.
The alleged use of the dragnet was not disclosed to the defense team ahead of trial, the attorneys claimed.
In fact, it only came to light in a whistleblower letter that surfaced before jury deliberations at the second trial where Lewis was ultimately convicted — following a hung jury at the first trial , according to the court document.
Parabon had issued a report to the NYPD after conducting biogeographic ancestry and phenotyping analysis on DNA lifted from the 30-year-old Howard Beach jogger’s cellhone, the filing alleges.
Since-resigned prosecutor Brad Leventhal allegedly “intentionally” hid Parabon’s report — and the “paper trail” showing that the NYPD used the company that wasn’t licensed in New York state, the court papers claim.
Testimony from detectives at trial “was carefully tailored to maintain a shroud of secrecy over the racial dragnet,” — with one detective allegedly lying at least once on the stand, the filing claims.
Lewis’ right to a fair trial was violated and had the new evidence come out earlier he may not have been convicted, his attorneys argued.
“While the truth of what happened in this case remains unknown, what is known is that the truth has been willfully, intentionally, and maliciously suppressed, in order to guarantee a conviction,” the filing charges.
The move to vacate Lewis’ 2019 conviction and request a new trial is coming years later r because “it took a very long time to confirm that the NYPD used Parabon and it’s racial phenotyping in the Lewis investigation,” Kuby told The Post on Tuesday.
Lewis’ attorneys also spent a long time trying to get the necessary documents from the Queens District Attorney’s Office “to no avail,” Kuby claimed.
In 2021, nearly 40,000 signed a petition demanding that the DA’s office review the case claiming the trial was riddled with issues, including a history of prosecutorial misconduct by Leventhal, who resigned amid the allegations.
“The NYPD engaged in a massive racial dragnet, inspired by a DNA lab not permitted to work in NYC, then worked with a now-disgraced prosecutor to conceal it, hide the documents that would have proven it, and then promoted a phony story about dogged police work and good luck to conceal the intensely racist nature of the investigation,” Kuby said in a statement.
Queens DA Melinda Katz’s office, which prosecuted the case, said: “we do not comment on pending litigation.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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