Exoneration is 14th in Brooklyn since last year

August 5, 2015 Associated Press

Brooklyn D.A. Kenneth Thompson. Eagle file Youtube screenshot

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A man found guilty of murder in 2009 has become the latest person to have his conviction overturned by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

Joel Fowler was freed Tuesday. He was convicted of murdering a 24-year-old man in 2008 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

“We are determined to correct miscarriages of justice whenever we find them. This is the right thing to do,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

The New York Times says the chief of the district attorney’s office’s Conviction Review Unit asked the court Tuesday to vacate Fowler’s conviction.

Mark Hale said “multifaceted confluence of issues” had led to Fowler’s wrongful conviction, including ineffective counsel, an unreliable witness and a false confession from a frightened Fowler.

Hale says Fowler was nowhere near the incident.

Fowler is the 14th person to be exonerated in Brooklyn since Thompson became district attorney in 2014.