Courts and Law

Attorney General announces revolutionary plan for the wrongfully convicted

Gives Opportunity That Would Have Benefited a few Brooklyn Defendants

February 21, 2014 By Charisma L. Miller, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Wednesday announced planned legislation that would allow those who are found wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a crime to present a claim for damages against the state.

The “Unjust Imprisonment Act,” as the legislation will be called, is scheduled to be introduced to the legislature by New York State Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Northern Brooklyn).

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“New York State law currently presents unnecessary and unjust barriers to recovery for some individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned,” said Lentol.

The current law presents a barrier for defendants to financially go after the state for wrongs committed against them. Under the current legal structure, a defendant can pursue a claim against the state for wrongful conviction only if the defendant can show he or she “did not by his own conduct cause or bring about his conviction.”  

In other words, if a person falsely confessed to the crime for which he or she was convicted or signed a statement under coercion, such a person cannot pursue damages against the state if it is later found out that the defendant was innocent of the crime.

The present law would not help the case of former Brooklyn defendant Sundhe Moses, who was wrongly convicted for the killing of a 4-year old girl by a stray bullet.  Moses confessed to the crime under the allegedly physically abusive persuasion tactics of controversial Brooklyn Detective Louis Scarcella.

After spending 18 years of his life behind bars, Moses was set free by the Parole Board in October 2013. Should Moses appeal to a judge for the conviction to be overturned, because Moses confessed to the crime, albeit falsely, he would not be able to claim damages against the state. Schneiderman’s proposed legislation would remedy that.

According to Schneiderman, the current law includes an overly broad exclusion that disregards certain extenuating, but all too common, circumstances for a false confession. It doubly victimizes innocent people who were in fear for their lives, who had a nervous, mental or psychological problem, or were simply too young to know better, so they admitted doing something they did not do.

“Those who are wrongfully convicted and unjustly deprived of liberty must be allowed to put their lives back together again, and we have a moral obligation to help them do so,” said Schneiderman, speaking to an audience at John Jay College.

Seymour W. James Jr., attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society’s criminal practice,stated, “[i]nnocent people falsely confess to crimes for a variety of reasons.” James, a Brooklyn resident, noted that “[i]n approximately 25 percent of wrongful convictions that have been overturned with DNA evidence, false confessions, admissions or statements were made to law enforcement officials.”

Brooklyn has been plagued with reports of wrongful convictions and overturned verdicts in the past few years — many of these convictions occurring during the tenure of former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

Earlier this month, two men wrongly convicted for a triple murder have been freed after spending more than two decades in prison. Anthony Yarbough and Sharrif Wilson were released after Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Raymond Guzman overturned their convictions based on new DNA evidence.

Jabbar Collins, wrongfully convicted in 1995 for the murder of a Brooklyn rabbi, filed a suit against the Brooklyn DA’s Office for the 20-plus years he spent behind bars. And David Ranta, accused of the 1990 murder of another Brooklyn rabbi, was released from jail after Brooklyn prosecutors admitted that the case against Ranta had ““significantly eroded.”  

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik expressed her sorrow as she ordered Ranta’s conviction vacated in May 2013: “To say that I am sorry for what you have endured would be grossly inadequate. But I’ll say it anyway. I am sorry.”

The Unjust Imprisonment Act would also extend, by one year, the statute of limitations for filing a claim for damages by those who seek to prove they were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.

In an effort to ensure that no one who may be eligible for relief under the statute is shut out of his or her ability to make a claim, persons who were pardoned, or whose cases were dismissed based on exculpatory DNA evidence — such as Moses — constitutional violations or on any other ground enumerated in the statute, would have three years from the date of the pardon or dismissal, rather than the current two years, to file a claim for damages.

“Prosecutors are in the business of locking up the bad guys. But when the system fails us, and innocent people are sent to prison, they must be given a chance to rebuild their lives afterward — it’s only fair,” noted Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Wrongfully convicted Jeffrey Deskcovic agreed with Soares’ sentiment.

“As someone who served 16 years in prison and was exonerated of a crime I never committed, I know how hard it is to seek justice from the state. We need to support these innocent individuals with meaningful compensation,” said Deskcovic.

“The legal reforms we are proposing…are critically important not just to the futures of the people wrongfully convicted by our criminal justice system, but to our future as a just society,” Schneiderman said of his new legislation. “The Unjust Imprisonment Act will remove unjust and unnecessary burdens on those who have been imprisoned for a crime they did not commit.”


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