Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams yesterday called for an independent state commission to investigate and determine all parties responsible for wrongful convictions throughout every county in the state including the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The announcement comes just a week after the release of 43-year-old Jabbar Washington who was wrongfully convicted for a 1995 robbery and shooting in Brownsville. Washington spent 20 years behind bars before the Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) reviewed his case and determined he was wrongfully prosecuted.
The late District Attorney Ken Thompson created the CRU shortly after his election in 2014, and Washington is the 23rd person released from jail after the CYU found he was wrongfully convicted. Twelve of the 23 cases were tried under former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
Standing alongside former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Jonathan Lippman and former New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director, Norman Siegel, Adams presented a five point plan to Governor Andrew Cuomo as part of a statewide effort to right the wrongs of those falsely convicted.
Lippman signaled out Brooklyn’s CRU unit for praise, saying the unit should be emulated by other DAs in the state.
The plan includes the creation of an independent review panel, a report on the facts and consequences of incarcerating “innocent New Yorkers”, an addressing of the racial aspects of wrongful convictions, a report of taxpayer money showing how public funds were awarded as a result of wrongful convictions and recommendations to ameliorate systemic problems that lead to high amounts of wrongful convictions.
“I don’t want people to believe that exonerating the one’s who were innocently convicted means that this chapter is closed. No! This is a new chapter of finding the person who [actually] committed the crime and finding out who was part of any pattern of allowing a wrongful conviction to take place,” said Adams.
Adams went so far as to allude to possible punishment for prosecutors, detectives and even Assistant District Attorney’s that have played a role in wrongfully convicting innocent Brooklyn residents.
“If people intentionally did something incorrect, the statute of limitations may have expired but they need to be on public record. If they are currently in a place of policy now, they need to be re-examined, if they are still prosecutors we need to examine that and talk about their possible removal,” said Adams.
Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who helped create the CRU, has held steady to his commitment in continuing Thompson’s legacy and bringing back faith and equity to the Brooklyn criminal justice system.
“I will not rest and I will not stop fighting until every miscarriage of justice in Brooklyn is corrected and I have already implemented reforms to make sure they don’t happen in the future. We have changed the ethos of the DA’s Office from convictions at all cost to seeing that justice is done in each case,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez continued, “We have mandated training regarding ethical obligations, witness identification and evaluating confessions; and have hired a retired judge to serve as Ethics and Best Practices Consultant. I will be happy to share our programs and expertise with any Commission dedicated to this important issue and my hope is that our practices will be adopted throughout the State, as they have been in a number of jurisdictions across the country.”
But DA candidate Ama Dwimoh criticized Gonzalez for not going after people in the DA’s office and the criminal justice system responsible for the wrongful convictions.
“That is why I have repeatedly called on DA Gonzalez to submit to an independent review of these cases, and to allow for a full-scale investigation of alleged misconduct by police officers, assistant DAs and other DA office staff—and for punishment to be handed down appropriately,” said Dwimoh in support of forming a state commission, “to get to the bottom of this far-reaching scandal, and to clean up the Brooklyn DA’s office so that we can begin restoring the trust in our criminal justice system.”
Fellow DA Candidate City Councilmember Vincent Gentile also supported the formation of a state independent commission.
“Unlike the other candidates in the Brooklyn District Attorney race, all of whom worked in management roles in the Brooklyn DA’s office under Charles Hynes, Council Member Gentile was trained in the Queens DA’s office and is independent of Brooklyn’s bad history of convicting innocent people. He now believes the management and procedures of the Brooklyn DA’s office, that make them complicit in these wrongful convictions, must be a matter of top inquiry,” said a Gentile spokesperson.
