DAs Move To Throw Out 2 NYC Murder Convictions

NEW YORK CITY — Two men. Two separate murder cases. Two wrongful convictions.

Together, James Davis and Carlton Roman served decades behind bars for crimes they did not commit, attorneys said.

On Monday, Brooklyn's prosecutors dismissed all charges against Davis. Later that same day, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz agreed with Roman's defense attorneys that his conviction should be vacated.

"Vacating Mr. Roman’s conviction emphasizes the fact that although these cases are difficult and strenuous to investigate, my Conviction Integrity Unit will do everything it takes to ensure that the right and just result is reached," Katz said in a statement.

The two cases against Davis and Roman are unrelated, but bear striking similarities. Both men were convicted despite solid alibis from their respective girlfriends and questionable witness testimony, authorities said.

Davis wrongfully spent 17 years behind bars after the 2004 murder of Blake Harper at a party at a Brooklyn Masonic Temple, attorneys from the Legal Aid, who represented Davis, said in a release.

"In his case, the eyewitness identifications were always troubling: one witness always only said Mr. Davis resembled the shooter (except that he had a different hairstyle), one changed his testimony four times ultimately recanting, and the third and only witness at trial was a stranger who saw sparks coming out of the gun, and in his panic, ran into a wall while trying to flee," Elizabeth Felber, director of the Wrongful Conviction Unit at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement. "Archival studies show that eyewitnesses make incorrect identifications approx one-third of the time. On top of this problematic evidence, tunnel vision set in with law enforcement: no investigation was ever done into James Davis’s rock-solid alibi evidence or of the prosecution's star witness who was the subject of a massive federal drug ring investigation."

The Legal Aid Society helped secure a dismissal of charges for Davis after appellate judges vacated his conviction and ordered a new trial.

For Roman, Katz's Conviction Integrity Unit uncovered new evidence, including a recantation by a primary witness and new testimony that undermined his trial story, authorities said.