Joel Fowler - False Confession

Fowler, Joel; murder; NRE: false confession, perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, knowingly permitting perjury, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree, perjury by official, prosecutor lied in court

Suggestibility issues

[901:909]; Kings Cty. Ct. 11/4/09; motions to suppress denied

"A Wade/Huntley hearing [to determine the admissibility of confession, as well as potential suggestibility of photo array and lineup] was conducted before this court...The [prosecution] called two witnesses at the hearing: Detective Kevin Stumpf and [ADA] John Giannotti. I found their testimony to be credible, reliable and worthy of belief."*

[* Well, there's some combination of judicial gullibility/bias and police/ADA (convincing) disingenuouness operating here, because Detective Kevin Stumpf and ADA John Giannotti's testimony turned out to be not at all 'worthy of belief.' See below.]

"On September 10, 2007, Dwayne Smith was shot to death on a Brooklyn Street...[ Stumpf's ] initial interview with witnesses resulted in two possible suspects: [Fowler], also known as 'Scrappy' and...Brian Smith, also known as 'Cocaine.'

[In a photo array, Witness #1 picked Fowler as the person who shot Smith.] "The witness also indicated knowing [Fowler] from the neighborhood."

[Witness #2 did not initially pick Fowler in this same photo array; but after being shown Fowler's profile, then did. ]

[Fowler is arrested. Initially states he knows nothing about the crime, but then makes -- and signs -- a statement.]

"[W]itness number 1 viewed the lineup that was eventually constituted and identified [Fowler]...as the person who shot Dwayne Smith. Three additional witnesses viewed the lineup, including witness number 2, but none could make a positive identification...[Fowler] stated [to Stumpf ] that he knew the victim and that the victim had a problem with another individual that was gang-related. After denying any personal involvement in the shooting, [Fowler] was placed in a holding cell overnight.

"[T]he next morning, [Fowler], while in his holding cell, asked Detective Stumpf if he could speak with him...[Fowler] then gave an oral statement that not only placed him at the crime scene but had him firing a gun at the location. [Fowler] claimed that his shot did not kill the decedent, who had already fallen after [Fowler's] friend had shot him.

"Approximately two hours later, [ADA] John Giannotti commenced a videotaped interview...[Fowler then claimed] that although he was at the scene and had fired a weapon, that the deceased appeared to have a weapon and that [Fowler] had ordered his friend to shoot the decedent in self-defense. After the decedent was apparently shot to death, [Fowler] picked up his friend's weapon and fired a round in the direction of the decedent's friends, in order to provide [Fowler] with an opportunity to run away."

[All of Fowler's motions to suppress are denied.]

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On Septeber 10, 2007, 24-year-old Dwayne Smith, a member of the 'Bloods' street gang, was fatally shot on the street in Brooklyn..."

"Based on interviews with witnesses, police developed two suspects: 17-year-old Joel Fowler and another man, both reputed members of the 'Crips' street gang. An anonymous caller told police that Fowler and the other man had been seeking to avenge a shooting of a Crips member by a Bloods member. When the other youth was put in a lineup and when no one could identify him, he was dismissed as a suspect.

"After a woman* told police that she saw the shooting and that the gunman had attended the wake for Dwayne Smith, she was shown a photographic array. Police said she identified Fowler as the gunman and as the man she saw at the wake."

[* This would appear to be 'Witness #1' referred to above.]

"Four other witnesses to the shooting viewed a lineup that included Fowler and all told police that no one in the lineup was the gunman.

"Fowler was arrested on January 9, 2008. After first saying he knew nothing about the crime, Fowler signed a statement confessing that he and a friend had been involved in an altercation with Smith and that they shot at Smith in self-defense after Smith shot at them. Fowler said that he didn't hit Smith, but his friend had. Fowler repeated the confession in a videotaped statement. The friend was interviewed by police, and when he denied any involvement in the crime, the police dropped him as a suspect.

"Fowler went to trial in Kings County...in November 2009. The woman who said that she saw Fowler at the wake identified him as the shooter and altered her story to say that she hadn't actually seen Fowler at the wake, but that others had told her he was there. The defense and prosecution presented a stipulation that said that although the woman said she saw Fowler at the wake, in fact, he had been arrested for fighting on a school bus on the morning of the wake and was still in jail when the wake was held."

[So, what must have happened here is that the prosecution informed this woman that she could not have seen Fowler at the wake because he was in jail at the time. Thus, she then had to 'alter' her story. But this should really have destroyed her credibility entirely. ]

"Fowler testified and denied any involvement in the crime. His attorney, Joel Medows, failed to call any of the witnesses who had viewed the lineup containing Fowler and informed police that Fowler was not the gunman."

"On November 9, 2009, the jury convicted Fowler..."

"In 2014, [NYPD] detectives contacted the Brooklyn [DA's] Conviction Review Unit, after an informant revealed that a man had admitted to him that he was the person who shot Smith. By that time, attorneys for Fowler were investigating his case and had interviewed the eyewitness. She had admitted to a defense investigator that she had falsely identified Fowler.

"Conviction Review prosecutor John Sharples said that during the prosecution's interview of the woman in April 2015, she maintained that she saw the shooting, but was unable to see the gunman well enough to make an identification. She said that she was pressured by police to identify Fowler.

"On August 5, Sharples asked Kings County...Justice Matthew D'Emic to vacate Fowler's conviction. [Conviction Review Unit prosecutor Mark] Hale cited what he called a 'multifaceted confluence of issues' for the wrongful conviction. This included evidence that was not disclosed to Fowler's defense lawyer at the time of his trial showing that the woman who said she saw Fowler at the wake was also cooperating with police in an unrelated shooting. She identified the gunman in the other shooting by the same nickname she used to identify Fowler. That case had been dismissed prior to trial after she recanted her identification. The same police officers worked on both cases -- so they were aware of the woman's credibility problems -- and the prosecutor in Fowler's case also knew of the woman's credibility issues."

[Now, let's recall what the above county court judge wrote in denying Fowler's pre-trial motions: 'A Wade/Huntley hearing [to determine the admissibility of confession, as well as potential suggestibility of photo array and lineup] was conducted before this court...The [prosecution] called two witnesses at the hearing: Detective Kevin Stumpf and [ADA] John Giannotti. I found their testimony to be credible, reliable and worthy of belief.']

"That evidence, combined with the recantation by the woman of her identification of Fowler, the defense lawyer's failure to call witnesses who would have said Fowler was not the gunman, and Fowler's false confession, amounted to a cascade that caused a wrongful conviction, Sharples said."

"D'Emic granted the motion to vacate the conviction, the charge was dismissed and Fowler was released."

"In November 2016, Fowler filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York and three detectives. The lawsuit was settled in November 2017 for $2.5 million. Fowler also filed a claim for compensation in the New York Court of Claims and settled for $500,000."

[All emphases added unless otherwsie noted.]