Three Black men were released from prison on their own recognizance on Friday after the Conviction Integrity Unit in the Queens, New York, District Attorney's Office found that they had been wrongfully convicted of double homicide (article available here).
Queens Supreme Court Justice who on Friday vacated the convictions harshly criticized prosecutors for trying to defend the actions of trial prosecutor Charles Testagrossa. The court ruled the top prosecutor knowingly buried evidence to convict George Bell, Gary Johnson and Rohan Bolt for their bogus roles in a 1996 cop killing and then lied about the “egregious” violations that nearly sent one of them to death row. Bell, Johnson and Bolt, are now aged 45, 46 and 59, respectively, after 24 years behind bars.
"The District Attorney's Office deliberately withheld from the defense credible information of third-party guilt that is evidence that others may have committed these crimes. This exculpatory information was in the prosecution's possession, and had in fact been investigated and documented by the lead prosecutor at Mr. Bell's trial," the court wrote.
Current Queens DA previously defended the prosecutor's actions by saying it was not intentional.
“Even if that sort of memory lapse had occurred — and the Court does not believe that it did — good faith would have required much more than making sweeping assertions about the absence of any connection between [the Speedstick robberies] and this crime, without first making a diligent effort to ensure that nothing in the District Attorney’s Office’s files related to the Speedstick investigation contradicted that position,” the court said. “And all that that effort would have entailed was reviewing files of cases handled by Testagrossa’s own bureau.”
“This was, in short, not a good-faith misstatement; it was a deliberate falsehood,” the court concluded. "It astounds me and shocks my conscience that even in 1997, that constitutional violations of this magnitude can happen in any prosecution much less the prosecution in a capital case in which the former district attorney was seeking the death penalty of a 19-year-old man," the judge said. The judge added he had "lost many nights of sleep" since receiving this case.
Testagrossa no longer works in the Queens District Attorney's Office, but is currently an executive assistant district attorney for investigations with the Nassau County District Attorney's Office. The Nation reported that during the citywide search for the killers, then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani suggested the death penalty.