Another Wrongful Conviction Comes to Light in Brooklyn: Case of Wayne Martin

09.12.16 By Innocence Staff

Another Wrongful Conviction Comes to Light in Brooklyn: Case of Wayne Martin

Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson was in the news on Wednesday when he cleared all criminal charges against Wayne Martin, a man who had been wrongfully convicted in 2010 of a 2005 double murder and sentenced to life in prison.

According to the New York Times, Martin’s wrongful conviction was the product of someone in law enforcement withholding exculpatory evidence from Martin and his legal team. Through an investigation conducted at the urging of Martin’s lawyer, Thompson’s conviction review unit discovered that someone had tampered with a homicide report, erasing a paragraph which said that an eyewitness had identified the suspected gunman and it wasn’t Martin. The district attorney’s investigation also found a second report—also not disclosed to Martin’s defense team before trial—which echoed the information deleted from the homicide report: witnesses to the crime said that Martin was not the perpetrator.

Charisma Troiano, a spokeswoman for Mr. Thompson, said to the New York Times: “A prosecutor engaged in intentional misconduct faces immediate reprimand, including termination.” The prosecutor who handled Martin’s case quit in June and has not responded to requests for interviews.

In the six years that Martin was wrongfully incarcerated, the real perpetrators of the 2005 double killing killed at least two more people.

Related: First Woman Exonerated by Brooklyn District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit

 

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Edith Cheadle September 13, 2016 at 9:55 pm Reply   

The prosecutor should be made to take his place. In the same prison

Catherine Geever September 12, 2016 at 6:02 pm Reply   

Gentlemen:
Here we go again! Yet another ordinary, innocent man is railroaded into prison for a murder(s) that he did NOT commit. Even when eyewitnesses testified to prosecution investigators in TWO different documents, that the true murderer was NOT Wayne Martin; yet, the court documents were “tampered with” to falsely convict Mr. Martin anyway, and hastily imprisoned him for six years! Fantastic! What MORE extraordinary, manufactured corruption and perjury shall we see from our (in)justice system?? WHY aren’t these people who falsify documents and evidence disbarred, then PROSECUTED on felony charges, then sued in civil court for their damage to innocent people, including the TWO additional murders committed by the REAL criminals during the six years of Mr. Martin’s wrongful imprisonment??
At least the Innocence Project help to uncover this LATEST travesty after the innocent Mr. Martin “ONLY” suffered SIX years in prison, instead of the USUAL 25 to 30 years. Now, that’s “progress”, isn’t it !!??