arrow George Bell was released from prison last month after a Queens judge vacated his conviction due to prosecutorial misconduct. Scott Heins / Gothamist
They came up at a time when prosecutors were expected to be tough, and this was one of the toughest offices around: Queens under District Attorney Richard Brown. Back then, Queens prosecutors made sure to back their brothers in blue and they did a betterjoblocking up the bad guys than anyone else in the city. And if some idealistic judge decided Brown’s rank-and-file were a little overzealous in their pursuit of justice and ordered a new trial? So be it. They could always try again. Discipline was almost never called for.
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They Spent 24 Years Behind Bars. Then the Case Fell Apart.
A judge threw out the murder convictions of three New York men on Friday and admonished prosecutors for withholding evidence that cast serious doubt on their guilt.
Gary Johnson after his release on Friday.Credit.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
March 5, 2021
On the weekend before Christmas in 1996, a shop owner was opening his check-cashing store in East Elmhurst, Queens, alongside an off-duty police officer who was working security, when the two were ambushed by a group of men, shot and killed.
The case touched off a ferocious manhunt, and within days, three men were arrested. They were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to between 50 years and life in prison for murder.