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Three men were released from prison on Friday after the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) in the Queens, New York, District Attorney's Office found that they had been wrongfully convicted of double homicide.

Three Innocent Queens Men To Be Released From Prison Following Wrongful Convictions In 1996 Case Arrests and Subsequent Convictions Were the Result of Political Pressure, Coerced False Confessions and Suppressed Evidence News provided by Share this article Share this article QUEENS, N.Y., March 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- George Bell, Rohan Bolt and Gary Johnson, who were wrongfully convicted of a double murder in Queens and incarcerated for the last 24 years, will be released from prison today. T...

Newly-freed man George Bell became emotional as a Queens judge tossed his conviction and the convictions for co-defendants Rohan Bolt and Gary Johnson.

Additionally, the defense had made several specific requests for information suggesting the involvement of "Speedstick" gang members in the check cashing robbery and shootings, but the documents were not found in the defendants’ files and were only discovered by the CIU years later in the files of the unrelated prosecutions of alleged Speedstick members, according to the district attorneys office. However, the CIU concluded that the prosecutors assigned to men’s cases were unaware of these ...

Queens Prosecutors Long Overlooked Misconduct. Can a New D.A. Do Better? In her first year as district attorney, Melinda Katz has led major culture shifts in the borough. But some hope for more. Melinda R. Katz is the first new district attorney in Queens in nearly 30 years.Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times Jan. 27, 2021 The crimes were heinous, the punishments severe: A Latino man was sentenced to 40 years to life for murdering two people at a nightclub in 1993. A Black man was gi...

ABC News Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? OffOn Stacey Stites was just 19 when she was killed in Bastrop, Texas. • 33 min read The 20/20 Event Special airs Friday at 9|8c on ABC Rodney Reed sits on death row for murdering Stacey Stites. Her family believes the right man is in prison. Now, hear from Reeds family & new lawyers – the stunning 20/20 airs Friday at 9|8c on ABC.Carol Stites Stacey Stites was weeks away from marrying her fiancé when she went mis...

Queens state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Zayas called the notes “abhorrent” and “a smoking gun” of discrimination. “The document explicitly instructs prosecutors to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion and ethnicity, all in clear violation of well established constitutional law,” he said. Both sides in a trial are allowed to eliminate a certain number of potential jurors without giving a reason, in what are known as “peremptory challenges.” But a 1986 U.S. Suprem...

An appeal hearing for death row inmate Rodney Reed has been rescheduled once again for May after initially being moved from September to February.  Reed, who was convicted of capital murder in 1998 for the strangulation death of Stacey Stites in Bastrop County two years earlier, has now been scheduled for an appeal hearing on May 17 in the 21st District Court in Bastrop County, according to court records. Reed has maintained his innocence and is seeking to overturn his conviction. In a ph...

Defense. >> he was pulling from the same play book in that case in 1987 when he was first asked about it he denied the rape completely, and it was only after he was tied to it by dna that he started to tell a whole different story that he was having sort of a secret affair with her. >> that jury gave him a second chance. they believed him. i think most people dont know the whole story of rodney reed. they dont know that the only reason he was caught is because he tried to do it again, and she wa...

Cooperating with the investigation. >> investigators had trouble placing fennell at the scene of the crime because of the distance between bastrop and his apartment in giddings. >> just a simple logistics of it didnt work. the problem was, how jimmy could have possibly gone with stacey that morning, murdered her, left the truck in bastrop next to the railroad tracks and then somehow gotten back home in time to be back in bed, when staceys mom called him at 6:30. and it didnt work. >> when benjet...