NEW YORK (AP) – A 1991 murder conviction was vacated on Friday after prosecutors told a New York City judge that the state’s key witness had lied about who did it, a case linked to a retired detective at the center of dozens of wrongful conviction claims.
The decision at a hearing in Brooklyn cleared Derrick Hamilton, who had served 21 years in prison before being paroled in 2011.
“One day in prison is too much for an innocent man,” Hamilton told reporters outside court. “It’s exhilarating. It’s a grateful day.”
At the hearing, prosecutor Mark Hale told a judge that a review of Hamilton’s case concluded that a purported eyewitness to the fatal shooting was “unreliable, incredible and untruthful, and because of that Mr. Hamilton’s due rights were violated.”
Hamilton’s defense team had claimed that Detective Louis Scarcella framed him by intimidating the witness into falsely identifying him as the shooter.