NYC Releases Three Men After Imprisonment For Crimes They Did Not Commit
On Thursday, three individuals saw their criminal records expunged as a result of fresh evidence that prompted a district attorney to overturn their wrongful convictions from decades ago.Earl Walters, Arnold McCloud, and Reginald Cameron were separately found guilty of crimes during the mid-1990s.
Walters, at the age of 17, was apprehended on suspicion of being involved in the assault and robbery of two women in September 1992 in Queens, New York City. Held for 16 hours without legal representation, he was subjected to police questioning during which he “provided self-incriminating statements along with those of an accomplice,” as indicated in the press release.Following his conviction in 1994, Walters served two decades behind bars before being granted parole in 2013.Recent fingerprint evidence has now implicated different individuals in the 1992 assault and robbery incidents.
Queens District Attorney Katz emphasized, “Justice in the criminal justice system necessitates a reassessment of cases when credible and fresh evidence of actual innocence or wrongful conviction comes to light. Those who have endured imprisonment for offenses they unequivocally did not commit deserve a clean slate.”Upon receiving the apology, Walters expressed his sentiments, stating, “It was reassuring to hear those words,” as reported by ABC 7.
McCloud and Cameron were arrested in 1994 in connection with the fatal shooting of Kei Sunada, a Japanese national. The pair confessed to a detective who had been involved in two prior cases marked by false confessions—the Central Park Five rape case and the 1990 murder of a tourist from Utah during the U.S. Open.Subsequently, both of them recanted their confessions.
Discrepancies between their confessions and the actual circumstances of the case, echoing concerns with other confessions linked to the same detective, prompted a reevaluation of their convictions.
McCloud’s conviction resulted in a 28-year prison term, culminating in his release in January. Cameron, after being convicted, pled guilty and served eight years in incarceration before being granted parole in 2003.Reflecting on this turn of events, Cameron shared his thoughts, “This scar on my face won’t vanish, the loss of precious moments with people I never got to see again, those moments can’t be reclaimed,” conveyed through remarks to Spectrum NY 1. He added, “So yes, they didn’t just right a wrong; they acknowledged a wrong.”
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