Cuomo To Free Man Who Served 22 Years For Having A Broken Gun

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN – Eugene Bush is one of seven men whose sentences were recently commuted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but he's the only one who did not commit murder. Court records show the Brooklyn man has spent 22 years in prison for owning a gun that didn't work.

Cuomo chose to commute Bush's sentence on New Year's Eve because the Brooklyn man "demonstrated substantial evidence of rehabilitation," according to an official statement.

But that statement makes no reference to the details of Bush's criminal possession of a weapon conviction, which court records show relied on "fake lineups," a 3 a.m. confession given without an attorney present and the dismissal of black jurors, one because she wore a nose ring.

Bush's run-in with the criminal justice system began on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Monroe Street where a man named Wayne Jordan was shot dead about 7 p.m. on April 1, 1995, court records show.

Bed-Stuy police quickly hauled Bush into the 79th Precinct, where he was subjected to "fake lineups" designed to make Bush believe "several witnesses had recognized him from the night of the shooting," a Brooklyn judge wrote in a 2003 memorandum that denied an appeal by Bush.

Police then read Bush his Miranda rights and submitted him to a seven-hour interview, during which he may have asked for, and been denied, the right to remain silent, according to the memorandum.

"I have nothing to say, nothing," Bush said, according to a Bed-Stuy detective's testimony. The detective later recanted his testimony, explaining he couldn't recall Bush's exact words.

Bush was Mirandized again at 3 a.m., twelve hours after he was arrested, and filmed giving what he believed was "an exculpatory statement" to a Brooklyn assistant district attorney, records show.

Bush admitted to having a gun, but said he did not shoot Jordan because his weapon jammed, according to court records.

Brooklyn attorney Harvey Herbert later argued in his appeal that the confession should be excluded because police used deception to obtain it, court records show.

But Senior District Judge Jack Weinstein denied this argument because, "the use by the police of deception to make defendant believe that witnesses recognized him from the night of the shooting does not render defendant's oral statement involuntary."

Weinstein ruled that because Bush was Mirandized again before his taped interview, the confession was "not the product of a single chain of events."

Bush and another man, Michael Flourney, were both charged with Jordan's murder, court records show.

The Brooklyn judge also ruled that Bush had received a fair trial, despite Herbert's claims that prosecutors exhibited racial prejudice when selecting the jury, records show.

Brooklyn prosecutors rejected three African-Americans during jury selection, citing one man's distrust of police, one woman's grandmother who lived near the shooting, and another woman's nose ring which represented "a negative attitude toward authority," Weinstein wrote.

Three African-American jurors were ultimately allowed to sit on the jury, which Weinstein argued meant, "This claim has no merit."

Finally, Herbert argued that Bush had been denied a fair trial because Bush's attorney at the time, Paul Fink, was not allowed to question a man who could testify he and his wife had been shot by Flourney, the man later convicted of shooting Jordan.

Again, Weinstein ruled against him and Bush's weapon possession conviction on Feb. 10, 1998, and his 25-year sentence, granted because he was deemed "a persistent violent felony offender," were both allowed to stand.

Bush spent his 22 years in Sing Sing becoming a library clerk, working toward a college degree, and filing multiple unsuccessful appeals, according to court records and the Governor's office.

Bush's earliest possible release would have been in September 2021 if not for Cuomo's commutation, state records show.

"Upon release, Mr. Bush will accept one of a number of job offers, including counseling positions," according to the Governor's statement, "and return to his wife who suffers from a chronic medical condition."

Patch was not immediately able to reach Bush's attorneys for comment.

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