BACKGROUND: NATIONAL REGISTRY OF EXONERATIONS: By Ken Otterbourg. Entered on October 22, 2024. Contributing Factors: Mistaken witness ID: Perjury or false accusation; Official misconduct; Inadequate legal defence; (Link Below): "In 2021, Alvin Bragg was elected as Manhattan’s new district attorney. He revamped and renamed Vance’s CIU as the Post-Conviction Justice Unit. A year later, the unit opened a new investigation into the case, which included DNA testing on the discarded betting slip. On April 10, 2023, the medical examiner’s office said that its testing had confirmed the independent laboratory’s analysis, writing: “Jon-Adrian Velazquez is excluded as a contributor to all samples where comparisons could be made.” On September 23, 2024, Velazquez’s attorneys again moved for a new trial based on the DNA evidence. In addition, the motion included a report by Dr. Jennifer Dysart, an associate professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an expert on eyewitness identification. Dysart’s report said several factors decreased the reliability of the eyewitness identifications, including the stress of the robbery, the witnesses’ unfamiliarity with the perpetrator, and cross-race identification. In addition, she said the procedures used by the police department might have also contributed to a misidentification. The fillers in some of the lineups did not match witness descriptions, Dysart wrote, and the tactic of having witnesses look through hundreds of mugshots was prone to error. She wrote, “The research literature on mugshot searching suggests that witnesses often make multiple selections from mugshot searches” regardless of whether the actual perpetrator is present. On September 24, 2024, the state, which had worked collaboratively with Velazquez’s attorneys, joined in his motion for relief, asking the court to vacate the conviction and dismiss the charges because a retrial would be unjust and “nearly impossible” to prove. “The People believe that a reasonable probability of a more favorable outcome exists in this case not only because of the new DNA analysis, but also because that analysis could have affected the jury's consideration of other trial evidence,” the response said. On September 30, 2024, Justice Clott granted the motions to vacate the convictions and dismiss the charges. Bragg said in a statement, “JJ Velazquez has lived in the shadow of his conviction for more than 25 years, and I hope that today brings with it a new chapter for him.” Outside the courthouse, Velazquez said: “This isn’t a celebration. This is an indictment of the system.” He wore a baseball cap that said, “End of an error.”
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=6885
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "He was sentenced to life imprisonment and became immersed in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the New York state maximum security prison in Ossining – colloquially known as Sing Sing, which became the focus of director Greg Kwedar’s 2023 film of the same name. Velazquez, who was freed in September 2021 after being granted clemency by newly discovered DNA evidence, was among several former inmates who starred in the movie alongside professional actors. It was warmly received on its release this summer, has won a number of awards and has been tipped to feature in next year’s Oscars nominations. The 48-year-old Velazquez, who received a presidential apology in 2022 from Joe Biden for his wrongful conviction, has also become a prominent advocate for criminal justice reform."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Velazquez would tell the New York Times, “Dave passed a blessing to me in Dan, so I vowed to pass the torch forward as much as I could.” Slepian would later refer to Velazquez as a “one-man innocence project,” whose advice and support helped play a role in the exonerations of Johnny Hincapie, Eric Glisson, and Richard Rosario, who were released even as Velazquez remained in prison. The relationship between Slepian and Velazquez, which deepened as they investigated his case, formed the heart of an NBC News podcast, Letters from Sing Sing, released in 2023. Slepian’s book, The Sing Sing Files, published in 2024, explores the connections between Velazquez and these other men as they sought to overturn their convictions and gain their freedom."
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STORY: "Sing Sing actor JJ Velazquez exonerated after wrongful conviction," by Reporter Richard Luscombe (based in Florida) , published but The Guardian, on September 30, 2024.
SUB-HEADING: "Velazquez was incarcerated for decades for a 1998 murder he didn’t commit before starring in award-winning A24 film."
GIST: "A New York judge on Monday formally vacated the homicide conviction of a man incarcerated for almost 24 years before starring in the award-winning movie Sing Sing about the rehabilitative effects of a prison arts program.
Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez fought back tears as he hugged friends and family outside the Manhattan district courtroom where he was exonerated
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and became immersed in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the New York state maximum security prison in Ossining – colloquially known as Sing Sing, which became the focus of director Greg Kwedar’s 2023 film of the same name.
Velazquez, who was freed in September 2021 after being granted clemency by newly discovered DNA evidence, was among several former inmates who starred in the movie alongside professional actors. It was warmly received on its release this summer, has won a number of awards and has been tipped to feature in next year’s Oscars nominations.
The 48-year-old Velazquez, who received a presidential apology in 2022 from Joe Biden for his wrongful conviction, has also become a prominent advocate for criminal justice reform.
He founded an educational initiative for inmates called Voices From Within during his incarceration and has acted as a motivational speaker since his release through his social justice organization, JJ4Justice.
“Who am I? I’m a very lucky man. I’m lucky that so many people believed in me,” Velasquez said outside the courtroom on Monday, as reported by New York’s ABC7 news channel.
In a statement, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said his office teamed with Velazquez’s attorneys to file the application to district court judge Abraham Clott to vacate the conviction.
“JJ Velazquez has lived in the shadow of his conviction for more than 25 years, and I hope that today brings with it a new chapter for him,” Bragg said.
“I am grateful to our Post-Conviction Justice Unit (PCJU) for its commitment to impartially uncovering the facts and evidence in this case.”
The campaign to free Velazquez gathered pace in 2002 when a Dateline NBC investigation led by producer Dan Slepian focused on evidence that the then 22-year-old was wrongly identified as one of two perpetrators of the deadly robbery at the center of the case.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office opposed two motions by Velazquez to vacate the conviction – in 2014 and 2018 – but reopened its investigation in 2022 through its newly formed post-conviction investigative unit.
It found that DNA found on a betting slip handled by the person who shot and killed the retired police detective, Albert Ward, during a struggle was not a match to Velazquez. The testing was not available at the time of his trial.
“Since the creation of the unit in 2022, we have vacated 10 convictions through reinvestigations, and 500 more related to law enforcement members convicted of misconduct,” Bragg said.
“These convictions have deep consequences for individuals and their loved ones, compromise public safety, and undermine trust in the criminal justice system, which is why this work is of the utmost importance to me. We will continue to review these types of cases with the thoroughness and fairness they require.”
Kwedar, the Sing Sing writer and co-producer, joined actor Clarence Maclin and others involved in the movie at the courthouse on Monday to support Velazquez, Variety reported."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/30/jj-velazquez-exonerated
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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985 - ———————————————————————————————
- PRE-FINAL WORD: Jon Adrian “JJ” Velazquez who, on September 30th, 2024, upon being exonerated after spending 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit: An exoneration is not a sign that the system is working, nor is it a celebration, but “an indictment of the system!”
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- 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."
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
