New York murder convictions could be vacated over detective's tactics

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/new-york-murder-convictions-vacated-detective-tactics

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Prosecutors plan to ask a judge to throw out the decades-old murder convictions of three half brothers who were investigated by a homicide detective whose tactics have come into question, officials said Tuesday.

The Brooklyn district attorney's office will make the request Tuesday afternoon in state supreme court, said DA spokeswoman Sheila Stainback.

The three, Alvena Jennette, Robert Hill and Darryl Austin, could become the first defendants connected to retired detective Louis Scarcella to have their convictions vacated. Austin died in prison 14 years ago.

The review of several murder cases investigated by Scarcella began last year after another man convicted of murder was released on new evidence that Scarcella had coached a witness to pick him out of a lineup. Since then, other convicts have renewed allegations that Scarcella fabricated confessions and manipulated witnesses.

The three were convicted in separate fatal shootings in the 1980s on the word of a "discredited crack head" produced by Scarcella, said the brothers' lawyer, Pierre Sussman.

Prosecutors have now "decided to do the right thing", Sussman said. "It's important to my clients to have their names cleared."

There was no immediate response to a message left with a lawyer for Scarcella. The former detective has denied any wrongdoing.

The DA's decision to seek to void the convictions was first reported by the New York Times.