NEW YORK (AP) – Prosecutors dropped a case Wednesday against a man who spent a quarter-century behind bars in an infamous tourist killing before getting his conviction overturned.
Johnny Hincapie’s eyes moistened as prosecutors said they wouldn’t retry him in a case that once symbolized a city roiled by random crime. He was freed when his conviction was overturned in 2015, but he’d faced the possibility of a retrial and potential return to prison.
“I’m overjoyed. I think I can finally now put this behind me and not ever have to worry about this, looking back, ever again. I can finally move forward with my life,” Hincapie said, his voice breaking, as he left court with his parents and brother.
Hincapie, now 44, said he falsely confessed to playing a part in a 1990 subway-station mugging that ended with the deadly stabbing of Brian Watkins, a visitor from Utah. He was killed trying to protect his parents from the robbers.
After years of fruitless appeals, Hincapie persuaded a judge to toss his conviction after two witnesses and a co-defendant said he wasn’t involved in the crime.