Man Locked Up for 18 Years After Police Show Wrong Photo, Prosecutors Say

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/nyregion/brooklyn-exoneration-sheldon-thomas.html

No paywall
https://archive.is/N1qzW

For nearly 20 years, one photograph stood between Sheldon Thomas and freedom.

It was a picture of the wrong Sheldon Thomas.

In 2004, police officers showed the image of a young Black man to a witness, who chose him from an array of six as a suspect in a fatal shooting in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood. That identification withstood scrutiny through an indictment, trial and appeals over more than 18 years.

But now, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office is saying that detectives, prosecutors and the original trial’s judge knew from the outset that the photo in the array wasn’t actually of the man they wanted to arrest, but they proceeded anyway.

In a new report from the Brooklyn district attorney’s conviction review unit provided to The Times, prosecutors said that the two men shared a name, and they had addresses in the same precinct, but police investigators knew early on that they were different people.

Mr. Thomas, 35, is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday afternoon before Matthew J. D’Emi, a judge with the Brooklyn Supreme Court. The district attorney’s office said in its report that the conviction should be vacated.

*snip*

[brush]

1. CRT illustrated. Hope he gets generously compensated for authorities...

ruining his life, and that the authorities responsible for it, get punished for what they knowingly did.

[Abolishinist]

2. At the very least, his compensation, which should be in the millions,

should be taken out of the police pension fund. This behavior and looking the other way needs to be punished, perhaps if there was a financial incentive to do their job and not screw over the public they might think twice. This particular group should receive no pension at all, and if they have at this point then it should be paid back.

[Karadeniz]

3. There is no expressing the evil those people committed.....

[Qutzupalotl]

4. MCAB

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

5. I hope he gets a big payout without having to sue...just pay

[pansypoo53219]

6. that is fucked up.

[Kali]

7. there is a DU connection to this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217714213

pretty cool