Brooklyn DA Exonerates Man Wrongfully Imprisoned By Lying Cop

Update: Friday, July 14 at 12:11 p.m. EDT: This story was updated to include a statement from one of Scarcella's attorneys.

“Jabbar Washington's conviction was vacated because of a pattern of intentional and egregious misconduct by trial prosecutor former ADA Kyle Reeves, as well as the failure of the trial judge to take appropriate corrective action when Reeves repeatedly crossed the line,” said Joel Cohen, one of Scarcella's attorneys, in an email to International Business Times Friday. “It was not about misconduct by Lou Scarcella.”

His attorney also wanted to note that when the police officer appeared on Dr. Phil in 2007, he listed all of his interrogation methods as being "within the law."

Original story:

A Brooklyn man wrongfully convicted of a 1995 Brownsville murder was freed Wednesday — the latest overturned conviction in connection to former NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella’s casework, according to New York Daily News Wednesday.

Jabbar Washington, 43, served 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. While in prison, he continually claimed his innocence. His release marked the 23rd overturned verdict related to the now-retired Scarcella’s questionable interrogation practices and detective work. Washington was sentenced to 25 years to life for an attempted robbery in Brownsville when a group of men tried to rob a crack den and shot six people, killing one.

Read: Are The Courts Racist? Blacks Are Wrongfully Convicted Seven Times More Often Than Whites

Judge Matthew J. D’Emic overturned the conviction, freeing Washington Wednesday. During the 1997 trial, the jury was told that Lisa Todd, a witness to the failed robbery, picked Washington out of a lineup overseen by Scarcella and his colleague Detective Stephen Chmill. However, they withheld the information that Todd later said she recognized him as someone she knew from her building, not as one of the robbers.

“It is critical that all defendants receive a fair trial and I am fully committed to reviewing and correcting miscarriages of justice in Brooklyn,” said Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in a Wednesday statement. “Following a thorough and fair investigation by my Conviction Review Unit, it was determined that Mr. Washington did not receive a fair trial and crucial information that would have been useful to the defense was withheld. Therefore, I am moving, in the interest of justice, to have his conviction vacated.”

During the trial, Scarcella claimed that Washington confessed to the crime, but Washington later said he was beaten into confessing. According to Defense Attorney Ronald Kuby, the 1997 decision was made because Assistant District Attorney Kyle Reeves withheld information.

“Detective Scarcella lied on the witness stand about the sole eyewitness identifying Jabbar Washington as the person who committed the crime, or the person who was there in the apartment that night. She did identify him, correctly, as someone who lived in the building,” said Kuby, as reported by WCBS Wednesday.

Washington’s case is one of 70 of Scarcella’s homicide cases the Brooklyn Conviction Review Unit (CRU) chose to investigate for wrongdoing. This operation was originally carried by the late District Attorney Ken Thompson and has been ongoing since 2014.

Scarcella, who was featured on the “Dr. Phil Show” in 2007, discussed his interrogation tactics with the talk show host. He revealed he worked on 241 cases during his time on the police force.

“Are there rules when it comes to homicide? No, there are none. I lie to them. I will use deception. The bad guys don’t play by the rules when they kill Ma and Pop, shoot them in the head, ruin the lives of their family. I don’t play by the rules,” Scarcella said at the time. “There are a lot of tactics you can use. I like the emotional tools. I sat down one day and I prayed with an individual. Sometimes I would use a lie. I had a case and I said, ‘I have your prints. You were there.’ And that’s it.”

Read: Man Wrongly Convicted Of Murder And Imprisoned For 24 Years To Be Set Free

Washington and his family were elated when he walked out of prison Wednesday.

“I'm just happy to go home with my family and loved ones who stuck behind me. I couldn't give up, I had to keep fighting. It was a bad dream. It had to end someday — it had to end,” he said.