Andre Hatchett - Perjury / False Accusation
Hatchett, Andre; murder; NRE: perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence
K14 "A man who spent almost 25 years in prison for a murder he said he did not commit walked out of a courtroom a free man...after Brooklyn prosecutors told a judge they could no longer stand by a conviction made from a 'systemic failure.'
"Members of the Conviction Integrity Unit in the Brooklyn [DA's] Office moved to vacate Andre Hatchett's 1992 second-degree murder verdict, pointing to an unreliable witness and Brady violations.
"'Mr. Hatchett was failed by almost every institution that he came in contact with during the course of this prosecution,' [ADA] Mark Hale said in court. He said the case was marred by Brady violations, as well as a substandard trial defense and an 'incredibly sloppy investigation' by police."
[Brady violations and an 'incredibly sloppy investigation by police' also characterized the prosecution of Nickel .]
"Hatchett's conviction is rooted in the 1991 murder of a woman in a park.
"Police responded to a 911 call about an unconscious woman around 11 p.m. on Feb. 19, 1991 and found Neda Mae Carter, 38, lying face up, naked, badly beaten in the face, head and neck.
"Detectives visited the victim's mother and learned that Carter had left home around 9:30 that evening and had been with Hatchett.
"Carter and her mother lived in the same rooming house as Hatchett's aunt and Hatchett visited the house frequently.
"Hatchett cooperated with the police and offered an alibi, according to the Innocence Project.
"At the time of the incident, Hatchett was recuperating from gunshot wounds to his throat and legs. His right leg was in a cast and he was using crutches."
[How in the world could a man on crutches, who was recuperating from gunshot wounds to his throat and legs, ever manage to pin a woman down, strip her naked, and then severely beat her?]
"The only witness to testify against Hatchett was Jerry Williams, who was a 'career criminal' according to a Brooklyn [DA] press release announcing the vacatur.
"A week later, Williams was arrested for an unrelated burglary and told officers at the precinct that he recognized a suspect in another robbery as perpetrator of the murder the week earlier.
"The man was investigated and determined to have an alibi.
"Prosecutors at the time never told Hatchett's defense that Williams, the only eyewitness to testify, had implicated someone else and had told police he had smoked crack the day Carter was killed -- information that cast his reliability into question and should have been disclosed, Thompson's office said.
"According to the Innocence Project, Hatchett's defense never offered medical records that would have shown the virtual impossibility of him carrying out the crime in his physical state..."
[639:114]; 2nd Dept. 3/11/96; affirmed "[W]e are satisfied that the verdict of guilt was not against the weight of the evidence..."
from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):
"Shortly before midnight on February 18, 1991, the body of 38-year-old Neda Mae Carter was found naked and beaten in Monroe Street Park in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn...She had been arranged in a cruciform -- her arms were straight out to her sides and her legs were crossed at the ankles. Scrapes on her body indicated she had been dragged to the location where she was discovered."
"In October 1991, Hatchett went to trial in Kings County..."
At the end of the trial, the judge declared a mistrial because of inadequate legal defense provided by Hatchett's defense lawyer. The judge cited the attorney for numerous failures, including failing to serve notice to the prosecutor of an alibi defense, for non-existent or minimal cross-examination of witnesses, and for repeatedly conducting conferences with Hatchett or the prosecutor in a voice loud enough for the jury to hear. The judge noted that the lawyer was hearing-impaired and could not hear all of the testimony.
"Hatchett went to trial for a second time in February 1992... Williams testified and...denied that he had received any favorable treatment from the prosecution relating to his burglary charge in exchange for his testimony. At the time, Williams had nearly two dozen prior convictions.
"On February 19, 1992, the jury convicted Hatchett of second-degree murder."
"On March 10, 2016 [ADA] Mark Hale, head of the Conviction Review Unit, moved to vacate the conviction and dismiss the case. 'Mr. Hatchett should never have been charged with this homicide,' Hale said, adding that the prosecution of Hatchett was a 'systemic failure' of the criminal justice system."
"In March 2017, Hatchett filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit. In October 2017, the city of New York settled the lawsuit for $12 million. Hatchett also filed a claim for compensation in the New York Court of Claims and received $2.5 million in 2021."
[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]
