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 ...
If true, she should pay a price, but the prosecutor/law enforcement people who suborned her perjury should pay an even higher one.
This isn’t a guy being released because modern technology has improved. The evidence at the time did not support the charge but proprietorial misconduct nailed him.
>> Neither the receipt nor the police letter had been provided to Fleming’s initial defense lawyer
What a crime that is. The meat of this man’s lifetime was taken from him.
this case is standard operating procedure for prosecutors.
Prosecutors need an independent oversight that is NOT judges
cops and da ought to forfeit their pensions tov this guy and do some jail time for railroading him. all they cared about was finding someone to pin this on.
They never seem to mention who the prosecutors were.
The prosecutor and cops should be hanged in Central Park.
The prosecutor, the police investigators and the witness should all be jailed. For 25 years. And their assets should be forfeited to this poor bastard.
Yes! They need to post the names very publicly.
I support exactly what you convey. They should do their time in the same prison(s) this man was held in.
A guy was released from prison in Texas in 2011. DNA got him out it after 25 years, but the prosecutor, by that time a judge, lost his law license and spent a few days in jail. Like Nigong, he withheld evidence. Every case he was ever on, was reviewed by the courts.
How do we find out who the Prosecutor was?
With more of these wrongful (and in too many cases intentionally so) convictions coming to light I am beginning to rethink my opinion on the death penalty.
They are convicting too many innocent people. And they KNOW they are doing it.
See, the thing is, I no longer trust the Govt., the “legal system”, the courts or the cops.
I saw the prosecutor’s name in another article. The article said his old files were being reviewed after another guy was released for a wrongful conviction.
Damn right! I hope this guy gets justice..........
My word .... How do these scumbags sleep at night knowing they railroaded an innocent guy for 25 years....
These are evil acts. I don’t care if they thought they were doing something useful for society. They deserve the harshest of punishments.
The poor soul. I hope someone opens a bank account for him AND his poor mother. That’s a long time to suffer from someone else’s badness.
Agreed. Under Brady V. Maryland, “A;; evidence must be turned over to the defense”. I had worked in the system for 31 yrs. It is a total farce when Prosecutors are corrupt. Judges always cover for them. Watch every show on tv where a wrongful conviction was overturned and the prosecutor still insists a jury’s conviction is the final word.
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