NEW YORK (CMC) – A jury has acquitted a Jamaican man who has been imprisoned in the United States for 24 years on a charge of murder.
The jury took only nine minutes to finally clear Derrick Deacon, 58, who was convicted in 1989 in the shooting death of Anthony Wynn during a robbery in a Flatbush, Brooklyn apartment complex.
Deacon, who had always denied the charge, was granted a new trial in 2012 after someone cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified a different man as the gunman.
Another witness also recanted her testimony.
“There was no case,” said the jury after reading the new verdict. “There was never a shred of evidence against Derrick Deacon. Why did they try him a second time if he’s been in jail for 24 years?”
Deacon, who had always insisted he was not near the scene of the crime, cried when the jury found him not guilty of the April 1989 slaying and robbery of Wynn.
Deacon was first convicted based on testimony from a single eyewitness who received US$1,000 from a Crime Stoppers hotline.
But in 2001, an FBI informant spilled on an unrelated Jamaican drug gang, the Patio Crew, and mentioned that someone named “Pablo” confessed to him minutes after Wynn was shot dead, saying he killed the potential cocaine buyer in a botched robbery, according to the New York Daily News.
It took years until that information was sent to Deacon, the paper said.
In 2009, a judge heard from the drug dealer and from a defence witness who said that she saw someone other than Deacon fleeing the scene but had given a vague testimony in the first trial after getting threatened by law enforcement.
The Daily News reported that investigators confirmed her account in a lie detector test but told her to hedge on the stand or her children would be taken away.
Justice Albert Tomei still denied a request to set the verdict aside, but an Appeals Court panel reversed that decision in June 2012 and jurors heard from all three witnesses during the retrial.
“I think they firmly believed in our client’s innocence,” said Glenn Garber, director of the Exoneration Initiative, a legal team that had taken up Deacon’s case.
“For 25 years, this man has suffered under a cloud of lies,” he told jurors in closing arguments,adding ”finally, please, set the record straight”.
Deacon is being held by immigration authorities, but his lawyer said he expected him to be released on bail within a week.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Jury-acquits-Jamaican-man-of-murder-24-years-after-imprisonment#ixzz2l86dJsso
The president himself should issue an apology this makes me so sad smh
NYS owes hi majorly for them years. They need to just cut him a check and done… I wonder if his case is related to that officer who’s cases they’re going through and exonerating a whole bunch of people? I don’t recall his name or the precinct offhand, but he sent up a few people, with recycled informants and everything…
I heard about it but dem seh dis one was based on a phone call and the person was paid $1000 but it fishy still because where is that person now fi be jailed for perjury ?
Madness
it tuk 2 decay tuh declare dis man free?!?!?!?
dis condition in great need a shampoo
Sad, sad someone who was in the courtroom said he cried like a baby.Sad how the system f**k judge gonna say to him immigration have a hold pon him.After 24 years I would off fight immigration tooth and nail f**k them.
they would really have a nerve bout immigration hold and they took away his life based on a lie..dem full a nerves but mi a keep mi ears pan dis one and see what dem up to because if dem really eva!!
I read the story in the observer just now and when I saw his hands I had to cry. Oh God man
thats the pawt i dont get why have a immigration hold pon dis man afta him duh 24 wrongful years if dem eva deport dis man dat wuda even wickeda dan de 24 yrs him did..sue dem fe wrongful lock up or whateva the boasy wud fe it name….frm 89 tuh nung de man doah knw de new new york bcuz of LIESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
simply dem full a f-kin nerves i would love a transcript of the case in 88-89 because mi wudda love fi know what was presented besides that testimony fi mek di jury give a guilty verdict
And that wicked person nyam that 1000 knowing dem a lie pan an innocent man! u si why some people pickney haffi cursed
thankkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk dats why nuff ppl nuh knw why bad blessing follow dem cuz dem parents nah mek dem knw de wicked weh de did a galang wid suh it a tek de off spring dis is very sad…de man suffa for no reason
She mek a man lose 24 years a fi him life and a go talk bout dem did threaten..She could have said she saw no one..wicked bitch she is
What a cheap and wicked informer! Poor man…..I don’t to say, but I can bet is a badmind member of our community that sold this man down the river. That person probably doesn’t even feel guilty. Some people cold with their wickedness.
Mi se mi heart a bleed so badddddddd mi waa know if we jamaicans have a curse pan we ? Why are we so wicked to our own?????
Them better give him millions fi him 24 years
but will it be of any use though? smh…
i think him deserve it times de $1000 weh dem lie pon him fah altho inna de 80’s dat money cud use to buy more than enuff pay rent and have change
where is di single witness who “recanted” their story? not a smaddy waz nooooooooooooo blasted witness em did young black n wors jamaican dat waz em crime :hoax2 unfuxxinbelievable
why di man inna immigration custody n why em need bail?? em fi walk rite out a di courtroom
Met if him never str88 before him go prison maybe them will try to deport him..the cue is a serious one…maybe he will have to get a lawyer,this merica system f8ck up all when yuh have di right inna yuh palm..
Hog head morning that nuh have nothing fi do wid it..he did not commit a crime and a dem ina di wrong so wedda him legal or not dem more ina di wrong dan him
Seriously immigration hold to be bonded out? Hasn’t this man suffered enough? Sir your lawyers fi file case against nys immediately. When the money roll in guh build big house a u yaad and nuh look back pon that wicked country ya. All him family must forsaken and him parents goodly passed for the 20+ years him deh a prison….. Straight f**kry and Real criminal a walk the streets daily