![]() Thomas arrived at Brooklyn criminal court in handcuffs he left in the arms of his grandmother. The Conviction Review Unit recommended vacating the conviction as "the errors undermined the integrity of the entire judicial process and defendant's resulting conviction." Because the evidence was and is defective, the case cannot be retried, and the unit recommended dismissing the underlying indictment. The defendant was convicted of second-degree murder, attempted murder and related counts and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. MORE: Christopher Dunn speaks on his wrongful conviction and fight for freedomĭespite these revelations, the judge found that there was probable cause to arrest Thomas based on "verified information from unknown callers" and the fact that he resembled the other Thomas from the photo array. ![]() When comparing the photographs of the two men with the same name, Linehan said the "defendant did not look like the other Sheldon Thomas." The detective went ahead with the arrest anyway because his "gut told him he had the right person," Linehan said. Reedy was later disciplined following an investigation by the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau.Īnother detective conceded that, when questioned a few days after the murder, the defendant had told them that it wasn't him in the photo array.Īt the time, when police told Thomas he had been picked out of a photo array, he told Reedy "that's not me," Linehan said in court. Detective Robert Reedy admitted he falsely testified and the defendant was actually not in the array. It wasn't until a pretrial hearing in June 2006 that the array identification of the wrong Thomas came to light. PHOTO: Police showed the photo of Sheldon Thomas, left, to a witness to identify, then arrested a different Sheldon Thomas, right, in a 2004 murder case, prosecutors said. A witness initially identified two men she knew, who did not include Thomas, as being in the car. Two guns were used and the shooters were inside a white car. ![]() Three alleged gang members, including Thomas, were charged with killing Bercy, and wounding another person on Dec. ![]() MORE: After 39 years behind bars, Black man walks free on overturned murder conviction "This is the first time in 25 years I've seen an erroneous photo identification used as the basis for an arrest that actually went to trial," Gonzalez said.Ī prosecutor, Charles Linehan, said a re-investigation of the case came to the "inescapable conclusion" that Thomas' conviction could not stand because he was arrested based on a photograph of a different Sheldon Thomas. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)īrooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, whose Conviction Review Unit reexamined the case, said he apologized to Thomas when the two met in court. Day at National Action Network House of Justice Headquarters, New York, Jan. PHOTO: Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez speaks during Martin Luther King Jr. ![]()
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