In a Letter to Mayor de Blasio and a rally at New York’s City Hall, victims of infamous Brooklyn detective Louis Scarcella, including some men who have been recently released after decades in prison, joined families of the wrongfully convicted to ask Mayor Bill de Blasio to immediately institute reforms that could help prevent wrongful convictions in New York City.
Families called on the NYPD to institute universally accepted methods to help prevent wrongful convictions by recording all interrogations and conduct “double blind” procedures in live police lineups and photo arrays. These practices have been endorsed by the International Association of Police Chiefs. It is the law in 22 states including New Jersey and Connecticut. The New York State Senate passed reforms in last session for the first time in years, but the State Assembly failed to act.It was a moving tribute to all those wrongfully convicted.
We were joined by Henry McCollum, who spent 30 years on death row. He gave a moving talk about how he and his brother, who were visiting NC from Jersey City , as young teens, were essentially kidnapped by police and coerced into a false confession. He talked about his disabled brother who was tortured into confessing, and how he watched 42 men go to their deaths while they were on death row. They were exonerated last year, but are damaged for life. If ever there was a testament to the need to reform NYPD procedures for recording interrogations, this was it.
Families also asked the NY City Council and NY State Legislature to establish an independent Innocence Commission, provide oversight of the five District Attorneys offices by establishing disciplinary procedures for ADA’s and police who engage in obtaining coerced confessions, withholding evidence and falsely identifying suspects. These practices were employed by notorious Brooklyn detective Louis Scarcella who, with the complicity of former DA Charles Hynes, engaged in actions that led to wrongful convictions and the imprisonment of scores of men for decades. Dozens of cases are still under review in Brooklyn while many remain incarcerated. As a result of Scacella and other cases, New York City has recently paid in excess of $100 million to wrongfully convicted victims.
They highlighted recent “conviction reviews” that were deeply flawed and resulted in maintaining the wrongful convictions including Manhattan DA Cy Vance’s 18-month review of Jon-Adrian Velazquez’s case, John Giuca’s case in Brooklyn and former Nassau DA Kathleen Rice’s three year review of Jesse Friedman’s case, made famous by the film, Capturing the Friedmans. In all of these cases, the conviction reviews were rejected by prosecutors with little or no transparency.
According to the Innocence Project
In NYC, 11 real perpetrators identified went on to commit five murders and three rapes
52% of New York’s DNA exonerations involved eyewitness misidentification, 48% of New York’s DNA exonerations involved a false confession.
Of the 330 DNA exonerations, 150 actual perpetrators were identified and went on to commit 70 sexual assaults, 30 murders and 25 other violent crimes
Families of the Wrongfully Convicted was started by exoneree Derrick Hamilton when he called me on the phone from prison with Shabak Shakur, exonerated this year, Danny Rincon, and Nelson Cruz, both still serving life terms, innocently.