2 Men Exonerated In Decades-Old Manhattan Murder Cases: DA

MANHATTAN, NY — Two men have been exonerated more than 20 years after being unjustly convicted in separate Manhattan murder cases, the District Attorney's Office said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced his office moved to vacate the convictions of Jabar Walker (aka Jabar Moore) and Wayne Gardine, both 49, as new evidence has come to light since their sentencings in the mid-to-late 1990s.

The Innocence Project and The Legal Aid Society had worked with Bragg's office to file the motions, after advocating on behalf of Walker and Gardine.

Walker was convicted in a 1998 double murder-for-hire plot, and Bragg's office determined that he received inadequate counsel from the state of New York after two of the witnesses in his trial provided new evidence.

"Not only was the case against Jabar Walker built upon unreliable and recanted testimony, he did not have the benefit of an effective defense attorney – one of the constitutional bedrocks of our justice system," Bragg said.

Bragg added that his office "agreed not to re-prosecute Walker in the interest of justice and because the case cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt."

Gardine, a citizen of Jamaica, is still in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, where he was transferred after being released on parole last year. He was convicted in the 1994 slaying of a man who was shot 11 times on a Harlem street.

The DA's Post-Conviction Justice Unit and the Legal Aid Society found evidence from a second witness in Gardine's case that undermined testimony from the sole eyewitness in his trial, Bragg's office said.

The investigation also uncovered that the witnesses "deliberately pinned the shooting on Gardine to please their drug boss," according to the Legal Aid Society.

Gardine released a statement thanking the team at Legal Aid and at Bragg's office for their investigation.

"I also want to thank my mom for being there all these years, and I want to thank myself for never giving up," he said. "I'm happy that the justice system finally worked.”

Bragg and Legal Aid advocates are calling on ICE to immediately release him following his exoneration.

“We are elated that Mr. Gardine will finally have his name cleared of this conviction that has haunted him for nearly three decades, yet he is still not a free man and faces additional and unwarranted punishment if deported,” said his attorney Lou Fox.