PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "After they had exhausted their appeals, the homicide case against them finally began to unravel in September 2014, when Jeffrey Conrad, a violent felon with a long criminal history, confessed to killing Mitchell. Conrad made the admission after he was arrested for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend in Cuyahoga County, Ohio."
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Federal lawsuits filed by Jones and Dukes against Albany police had accused the department of fostering a culture of corruption, including fabricating evidence and using coercion to obtain incriminating statements from the defendants and witnesses. Evidence in the civil cases included that the written statements detectives convinced Dukes to sign initially conflicted with statements they had gleaned from other witnesses who placed another man at the scene of the murder rather than Jones. In response, a federal judge ruled, the detectives went back to some of those witnesses and “using the same aggressive interrogation tactics,” pressured them to change their statements to fit the narrative that police had made up. Then 43, Conrad told Albany detectives details of Mitchell’s killing that police and prosecutors have acknowledged only the killer could have known."
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PASSAGE FOUR OF THE DAY: "Without it, prosecutors relied on the allegedly false testimony of former detectives Ronald Matos and Kenneth Wilcox, who died in 2006 during an on-duty car crash. During the civil trial in the Court of Claims, the judge had rejected efforts by Dukes' attorney to enter evidence to impeach the credibility of Wilcox, who was posthumously implicated in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that unfolded during his career as a detective. The appellate division agreed that the decision was proper because the off-duty financial misdeeds of Wilcox were not directly related to his police work. The lawsuits dredged up an era when Albany police and the Albany County District Attorney’s Office had routinely won convictions in homicide investigations that relied on signed confessions with little or no physical evidence to back them up. In many of those cases, Wilcox played a key role in obtaining confessions that were later found to have been coerced."
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PASSAGE FIVE OF THE DAY: "Jones had signed his confession following two sleep-deprived days in custody during which he was interrogated by city detectives. Dukes signed his confession in a courthouse conference room where he was grilled by Matos and Wilcox while his attorney waited outside, in part, under the belief they only wanted to question his client about a robbery."
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SUB-HEADING: "Carl H. Dukes spent 20 years in prison for the murder of Erik Mitchell, a UAlbany student. Another man later confessed to the killing."
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ALBANY — The state attorney general’s office recently agreed to pay $8 million to settle a claim filed by a man who was wrongly convicted in 1999 of murdering a University at Albany student, allegedly as part of a plot to silence a robbery witness. The plot had been fabricated by police.
The settlement of the case, which was filed in the state Court of Claims, came after a state appellate court overturned a lower court judge and ruled in December that Carl H. Dukes' murder confession had been coerced by Albany detectives. The appellate panel found that he was “actually innocent” of the 1997 homicide and should be further compensated after spending nearly two decades in prison.
The settlement adds to the $5.75 million that Dukes received in a settlement with the city of Albany four years ago — an outcome that stands as the largest legal settlement on record for the municipality. Three years ago, the city voted to borrow $4.3 million to pay the estate of Lavell R. Jones, who along with Dukes was also wrongly convicted in the murder of 23-year-old Erik Mitchell based on coerced statements of both defendants and witnesses.
Jones died in a motorcycle crash on Long Island in June 2021; his estate was later awarded an additional $5.5 million in a Court of Claims verdict.
Under New York law, someone wrongfully convicted of a crime can potentially bring two lawsuits — one for civil rights violations against the municipal agency that obtained the conviction, and a second against the state if the person can prove their innocence by clear and convincing evidence. The latter claim does not require proof of wrongdoing by the state.
“Carl is grateful to have fully and finally cleared his name and proven his innocence,” said Joshua D. Kelner, a New York City attorney who represented Dukes in the civil cases. “While the scars of his unjust incarceration will always be with him, he’s hopeful for the next phase of his life.”
Dukes and Jones were both released from prison in 2016. They had maintained their innocence from the beginning and accused detectives of making threats, including invoking the potential for them to receive the death penalty, to get them to sign confessions falsely implicating one another. They had admitted to robbing Mitchell four months before the murder but were not involved in his subsequent — and unrelated — shooting death.
They included that Mitchell was shot at close range above the left eye with a .25-caliber handgun, and had collapsed into a seated position against a wall inside the door.
Conrad said he was alone, wearing a mask, and abandoned his robbery plan and fled after he shot Mitchell, who was found with money still in his pocket. Mitchell had been targeted because he was known to sell marijuana.
“He opened the door, he reached for the gun, I shot him,” Conrad said, slapping his hands together during an interview that was videotaped in an Ohio jail. “It was just that quick and simple.”
Conrad also told police he’d killed at least a dozen people during his crime-filled life, and that he chopped up and threw away the silver handgun he used to kill Mitchell. The gun was never found.
Conrad is serving a life sentence for stabbing his girlfriend to death. Albany County prosecutors declined to pursue murder charges against him for Mitchell’s murder. They said the case would be difficult to prosecute because two other men had been wrongly implicated in the killing.
The appellate panel ruled in December that there was overwhelming evidence to support the fact that Conrad had committed the murder and that Dukes was innocent.
“Conrad provided a detailed and highly accurate account of shooting Mitchell, over 16 years after the fact, to two Ohio detectives who knew nothing about the crime,” the appellate panel noted in its ruling.
“Among other things, Conrad correctly gave the detectives the month and year of the killing, Mitchell’s name and description, the street where he lived, the location of his vehicle, the layout of his apartment entryway, the lack of forced entry, the manner in which Mitchell was shot, the caliber of bullet used, the location where Mitchell was found and the fact that other individuals were imprisoned for the murder. Conrad had no discernible incentive to make this confession, and he was known to be an extremely dangerous person.”
After the appellate court’s unanimous decision three months ago, the case was remanded to the Court of Claims to determine damages.
Federal lawsuits filed by Jones and Dukes against Albany police had accused the department of fostering a culture of corruption, including fabricating evidence and using coercion to obtain incriminating statements from the defendants and witnesses.
Evidence in the civil cases included that the written statements detectives convinced Dukes to sign initially conflicted with statements they had gleaned from other witnesses who placed another man at the scene of the murder rather than Jones.
In response, a federal judge ruled, the detectives went back to some of those witnesses and “using the same aggressive interrogation tactics,” pressured them to change their statements to fit the narrative that police had made up.
During their separate criminal trials, prosecutors offered no murder weapon or other physical evidence tying either man to Mitchell's death.
At Dukes' trial, one of the witnesses recanted the false statement he gave detectives implicating Dukes.
Without it, prosecutors relied on the allegedly false testimony of former detectives Ronald Matos and Kenneth Wilcox, who died in 2006 during an on-duty car crash.
During the civil trial in the Court of Claims, the judge had rejected efforts by Dukes' attorney to enter evidence to impeach the credibility of Wilcox, who was posthumously implicated in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that unfolded during his career as a detective.
The appellate division agreed that the decision was proper because the off-duty financial misdeeds of Wilcox were not directly related to his police work.
The lawsuits dredged up an era when Albany police and the Albany County District Attorney’s Office had routinely won convictions in homicide investigations that relied on signed confessions with little or no physical evidence to back them up. In many of those cases, Wilcox played a key role in obtaining confessions that were later found to have been coerced.
Dukes and Jones were sentenced to prison sentences that ranged from more than 30 years to life in prison.
Jones had signed his confession following two sleep-deprived days in custody during which he was interrogated by city detectives.
Dukes signed his confession in a courthouse conference room where he was grilled by Matos and Wilcox while his attorney waited outside, in part, under the belief they only wanted to question his client about a robbery.
A third suspect, Pierre Lyons, also signed a confession admitting to a role in Mitchell’s killing, but was later acquitted at trial.
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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
