QUEENS, NY – On Wednesday, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz filed motions to vacate three wrongful convictions, citing new evidence in each case.
Earl Walters, who served 20 years for the abductions and robberies of two women in 1992, was cleared as new fingerprint evidence pointed to other suspects. Similarly, a reevaluation found the confessions of Armond McCloud and Reginald Cameron in the 1994 shooting death of Kei Sunada to be unreliable.
The unreliable confessions were elicited by a detective previously linked to cases involving false confessions. District Attorney Katz stated that fairness in the criminal justice system necessitates reevaluating cases when credible new evidence emerges.
Several organizations contributed to the reevaluations, including the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University.
The Conviction Integrity Unit of the District Attorney’s Office worked closely with these organizations. Queens Supreme Court Justice Michelle A. Johnson granted the motions and dismissed the indictments against the accused individuals.