Posted on 04/08/2014 4:52:27 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
An innocent man who spent nearly a quarter century in prison for a murder he did not commit walked out of a Brooklyn courtroom with his freedom and his mother by his side Tuesday.
Jonathan Fleming, now 51 years old, was in tears as he hugged his lawyers and family Tuesday after his conviction was thrown out by a judge.
"I feel like the time I felt when he was born and the nurse bring him to me," said Patricia Fleming, the mother of the wrongly jailed man. "That's how happy I was."
From the start, Fleming proclaimed his innocence in the 1989 shooting of his friend Darryl Rush: he said he was vacationing in Disney World. He had plane tickets, videos and postcards from his trip and the testimony of his own mother.
The New York Times first reported the questions in this case, including investigators, hired by his attorney Anthony Mayol, interviewing a key witness who says she lied and singled out Fleming in exchange for having felony charges against her dropped.
Prosecutors' own review produced a hotel receipt that Fleming paid in Florida about five hours before the shooting - a document that police evidently had found in Fleming's pocket when they arrested him. Prosecutors also found an October 1989 Orlando police letter to New York detectives, saying some employees at an Orlando hotel had told investigators they remembered Fleming.
Neither the receipt nor the police letter had been provided to Fleming's initial defense lawyer, despite rules that generally require investigators to turn over possibly exculpatory material.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnewyork.com ...
Under the Law of Moses false testimony was punished by the penalty they tried to get the innocent person to suffer, up to and including the death penalty.
They didn’t have cops or prosecutors then, but I don’t see why we can’t apply the principle.
In (very) partial defense of the cops and prosecutors, they often believe (sometimes even accurately) that the person they’re railroading is a career criminal anyway, so what difference does it make if he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit when he’s gotten away with dozens or hundreds of crimes?
Convicted on the word of one supposed witness? there is more to this than the news story tells. Did the jury consist of complete idiots? How about his defense attorney? There is so much to question about this it boggles the mind
The cops and DA should do triple the sentence of the innocent man wrongly convicted, and give up all their personal accumulated finances to him as well, including the value of any pensions they have coming.
About a decade ago, the Richmond Times-Disgrace editorialized that they would refuse to embarrass the great heroes of law enforcement when these "rare" events happened. I doubt that's still policy, but I'm not sure. A lot of these "Law & Order" hacks went on to be very powerful.
Hey, wasn't this Giullani time? And Andrew McCarthy? Just curious ...
Thank god he wasn’t in texas. Then Rick Perry and Gregg Abbott would have to find a way to cover it up through cronyism and procedural loops.
Cases like these have eroded my support of the death penalty. I support the idea of jail time for all people involved.Hold them accountable and destroy them. I’d support the death penalty if prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement suffer the same if they get it wrong.
I support Moses. He was the original epic beard man.
Its the system.
Just google “Fred Zain” if you wanna see how bad. He was WV’s head crime lab chemist. He made up testimony to convict hundreds of people. Everyone looked the other way because he got convictions.
It is a biggie, imho.
Yep and the state should be sued for damages (wasted time, and false imprisonment) against this man HE DESERVES to HAVE A SETTLEMENT AGAINST THE STATE for the wage earning years of his life that he has lost!!!
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