Two men who were convicted in the 1990s in separate murder cases spent more than 20 years in jail before New York City prosecutors overturned their convictions on Monday.
During the briefing that took place at the headquarters of the New York Police Department on April 18, 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was present. The suspects were arrested in connection with the drugging, robbing, and killing of two men. (Source: abc News)
Wrong Testimonies Lead to the Abolishment of Conviction
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Jabar Walker, 49, as Jabar Moore, and Wayne Gardine, 49, were unfairly convicted. Bragg’s office cited “newly discovered evidence” of Walker’s erroneous conviction in a 1998 murder-for-hire case and stated he did not get meaningful legal representation. Bragg tweeted that Jabar Walker’s case was based on faulty and recanted testimony and without an effective defense attorney, one of our criminal justice system’s constitutional foundations. Despite these major flaws, Mr. Walker received a life-threatening sentence. I hope he may return home and praise the Innocence Project’s diligent advocacy.
Bragg’s office concurred with the Legal Aid Society’s Wrongful Conviction Unit that Gardine’s 1994 fatal shooting was never proven by physical or forensic evidence. According to the Legal Aid filing, the only evidence against him at trial was the word of a teenager who claimed to have witnessed the murder, was on felony probation for selling drugs when he first incriminated Mr. Gardine, and changed his story several times between the incident and trial in police statements, grand jury statements, trial, and post-conviction. Gardine in his case statement congratulated Legal Aid’s entire team. Gardine also praised Bragg and his team for their thorough research, truthfulness, and speed in handling my matter. Gardine thanked his mom for her years and himself for never losing up.
A jury convicted Gardine of murdering Robert David Mickens, who was shot 11 times on a Harlem street on Sept. 2, 1994. He was spending 18 1/2 to life in prison. Gardine, who moved to the US from Jamaica with his family at 13, was paroled in 2022 after nearly 30 years in prison. Bragg’s office said he was sent to ICE and remains in jail. After Monday’s hearing, the Legal Aid Society demanded that Gardine be released from ICE and end deportation proceedings. Walker was serving two consecutive 25-year sentences to life for shooting William Santana and Ismael De La Cruz, who were found shot dead in a Harlem automobile on May 25, 1995. Walker was handcuffed Monday and released after 25 years in prison. In order to protect the interests of justice and because the case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, he announced that his office has reached an agreement to refrain from re-prosecuting Walker. Walker and Gardine are among the more than a dozen people exonerated this year for misidentifications, false confessions, police failure to reveal evidence, and more. The University of California Irvine, University of Michigan Law School, and Michigan State University College of Law’s National Registry of Exonerations recorded the exonerations. The National Registry of Exonerations has reported 3,287 exonerations since 1989.
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