Judge Tosses Conviction in 2007 Putnam Arson

The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice will hold a press conference Wednesday with William Haughey, who was exonerated Monday when a federal judge threw out his conviction for arson in Putnam County.

Haughey served eight years.

He was convicted of an arson that happened March 10, 2007, at Smalley's Restaurant and Bar in Carmel.

Haughey was arrested the next day. At the time, according to the Danbury News Times, then-Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy said "the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming and led to only one logical conclusion, and that was the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

According to the Deskovic Foundation, on May 23, the Hon. Vincent L. Briccetti, Southern District Court issued a final judgment order, with the consent of current Putnam County District Attorney Robert Tendy.

It vacated Haughey’s arson conviction, stating that the evidence adduced at his state trial was not only legally insufficient in that no rational trier of fact could have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but also that he had established by clear and convincing evidence that he is actually innocent of the offenses of which he was convicted, the foundation said in a press release.

The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation is committed to fighting wrongful conviction through: raising awareness; seeking legislative changes; exonerating the wrongfully convicted; helping exonerees reintegrate.

Deskovic was 17 when he was convicted of murdering Angela Correa in 1989. He was exonerated of the crime in 2006 due to DNA evidence and a new trial. A federal jury found that ex-Putnam Sheriff’s Investigator Daniel Stephens, then an Investigator with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, fabricated evidence and coerced a false confession from Deskovic that led to his wrongful conviction of the 1989 rape and murder of his Peekskill High School classmate.

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