Nathaniel Carter - Perjury - Police Misconduct

Carter, Nathaniel; murder, assault; NRE: perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, prosecutor lied in court

H6 [from FN383:] "Nathaniel Carter was convicted of second-degree murder...The chief prosecution witness was [his] ex-wife, who had been given immunity from prosecution for murder at trial...She later confessed to the murder, and Carter was released after serving twenty-eight months in prison."

612 F.Supp. 749; E.D.N.Y. 6/21/85; civil suit

"On September 15, 1981, Clarice Herndon was stabbed to death in her home in Columbia Heights...Numerous wounds were inflicted, and the police officers who responded to the scene reported that the interior of her home was covered with blood.

"On his way to the scene...Walter Steele, a police officer, observed a black male running down the street whose shirt was covered with blood and whose description did not match that of [Carter]...Police Officers Henry Harrison, William Fredericks and Michael Miele ...who were investigating the murder under the supervision of... Lieutenant Thomas Ahearn and Sergeant Stanley Andron, interviewed a young witness who also saw a black man running down the street near the victim's house soon after the incident...This man wore bloody clothes and his description did not match that of [Carter]."

[This is quite odd. Because we now know that the murder was actually committed by Delisa Carter, Nathaniel's wife at the time, the man these two witnesses reportedly saw running down the street covered with blood had absolutely nothing to do with the Herndon killing. So, why was he covered in blood? And why didn't the polcie officer who saw him try to give chase, or at least, try to alert other officers to do so?]

"William Fredericks ...interviewed Judith Cooper, a neighbor of the victim...Ms. Cooper told [him] that shortly after the murder, she heard Delissa Durham, [Carter's] ex-wife and the victim's foster daughter, talking to two men, neither of whom matched [Carter's] description. Ms. Cooper claimed that she overheard Ms. Durham ask these two men to pick up Nathaniel Carter, Jr., [Carter's] son, from school...Ms. Cooper then observed the men leaving, presumably to carry out this task...Soon after the murder, a black male arrived at the local elementary school to pick up [the son]...At the trial, [Carter] claimed that he did not pick up the child, and that he was in Ossining...at the time of the crime. In refuting [Carter's] alibi, the prosecution presented testimony that the black man who picked up [the son] at school was [Carter]."

"Harrison interviewed Delissa Durham on September 15, 16 and 18, 1981...On September 18th, Ms. Durham accused [Carter] of the murder...Harrison arrested [Carter] on September 19..."

"[Carter] alleges that certain information concerning Harrison was deliberately not disclosed to Carter's attorneys."

"After [Carter] was convicted, the Commissioner of the Peekskill Police Department, Walter Kirkland, conducted an independent investigation of the murder...In late 1982, after uncovering what he thought was substantial evidence that [Carter] was not involved in the crime, he met with... Ahearn and Andron ...Mr. Kirkland urged them to reopen the case, and made the information he had acquired available to them. They refused and undertook no further investigation. "

[Quite incurious cops, indeed. In that same vein, nowhere do we see even the slightest hint of what possible motive Nathaniel Carter could have for killing his wife's foster mother.]

"Finally, on January 25, 1984, after [Carter] had been incarcerated for twenty-eight months, Delissa Durham admited under oath in...Queens County [Court] that she, not [Carter], had murdered Ms. Herndon...She further testified that [Carter] had no involvement in the crime...On the basis of this testimony and an investigation by the Queens County [DA's] office and the Legal Aid Society, Justice [John L.] Leahy granted [Carter's] motion to set aside his conviction..."

"[Carter] alleges that the evidence concerning the fleeing males was exculpatory in nature...He further claims that he was entitled to production of such evidence prior to his trial...Moreover, [he] asserts that the evidence was deliberately and purposefully suppressed by... Harrison, Fredericks, Miele, Steele, Ahearn, Andron, and other unknown agents and employees of the City of New York because it was not dellivered in useable form to either the [DA] or to [him (Carter)] before or during the trial."

"[Carter] also alleges that the statements of Judith Cooper, the neighbor, were exculpatory. The police, therefore, were also required to produce these statements either to [him] or to the [DA] before or during trial and failed to do so."

from NRE synopsis (by Jason Robin):

"The crime occurred in the early afternoon of September 15, 1981, in Cambria Height in Queens...At around 2:45 p.m., Delisa Carter, a 23-year-old black woman, murdered her foster mother, Clarice Herndon, age 60, in a fit of pique during an argument over her 3-year-old daughter, Chamara, who died six months earlier in a fire at Delisa's apartment. Furious that Mrs.Herndon would blame her for her daughter's death, Delisa flew into a rage, and after retrieving her plastic-handled folding knife from her basement room, she began stabbing her foster mother repeatedly all over her body -- the coroner found a total of 23 stab wounds to Clarice Herndon's head and neck.

"Instead of taking responsibility for the murder, Delisa Carter concocted a completely fallacious account of what happened. She told police during initial questioning that the killer was a black male, unknown to her, who entered the home through the back door and threatened her with a knife. She claimed that after the assailant cut her hands, she ran out of the house for help, leaving her foster mother, Mrs. Herndon, alone with the killer.

"Three days later, the police brought Delisa in for further questioning. She repeated her story about an unknown intruder. Unconvinced, the questioning officer, Henry Harrison, threatened to arrest her for withholding evidence if the knife found in the house carried fingerprints of anyone she knew. Relenting to the pressure, Delisa changed her story, and, after an hour-long interrogation, she identified the killer as her husband, Nathaniel Carter, a 31-year-old black man who had recently been fired from his job as a warehouse laborer. Because the [ADA] in charge of the case felt Delisa had neither a reason to lie nor motive to kill, he did not ask her to sign an immunity waiver before testifying. Without a signed waiver, Delisa was immune from future prosecution for this crime. While Nathaniel was in prison awaiting trial, he and Delisa divorced, and he married [a woman] with whom he had had a previous relationship.

"Using Delisa's eyewitness testimony as the cornerstone of its case, the prosecution called her to the stand to recount the [second] story she told police. Exhibiting the type of emotion expected of a grieving daughter, she impressed the jury with her demeanor and her description of the crime.

"Although the defense presented two alibi witnesses who attested to the fact that Nathaniel Carter was nowhere near the crime scene when the murder occurred, they could do little to combat the damage inflicted by Delisa's incriminating testimony. Both the prosecution and the defense team failed to interview and subpoena several other alibi witnesses who knew for a fact that Nathaniel Carter was in Westchester...at the time of the murder. In addition, the defense never drew attention to Delisa Carter's violent temperament -- as a woman with a history of violence and hysterical outbursts, she was known throughout her community for her fierce temper and short fuse.

"When Nathaniel took the stand to testify, he adamantly denied any involvement, claiming he had been in Westchester County for the entirety of September 15. But during cross-examination, the prosecutor, Jeffrey Granat, challenged Nathaniel's alibi by pointing to a conversation he purportedly had with a friend...during which he allegedly admitted that he arrived at Mrs. Herndon's home on the day of the crime to see that his wife's hands were cut and bloody. After the trial, [this friend], who did not testify, signed an affidavit statting that the conversation to which Granat alluded never took place. The jury found Nathaniel Carter guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree assault. On September 13, 1982, Judge John J. Leahy sentenced him to the maximum* prison term -- 25 years to life."

[* Nickel was also sentenced to the maximum.]

"After Nathaniel's conviction, his mother-in-law...called the Peekskill Police Department and talked to an old family friend, Lt. James Nelson, who promised to look into the case. Convinced of Nathaniel's innocence, he recruited Peekskill Police Commissioner Walter D. Kirkland to the cause, and they began a reinvestigation into the crime. With the cooperation of the [DA], John J. Santucci, they conducted another interview with Delisa, who cracked under the pressure of increased scrutiny. Although she wouldn't implicate herself, she did admit that Nathaniel -- now her former husband -- did not murder her foster mother. Still not satisfied, the police had Delisa's former lover...secretly tape-record a conversation during which she finally confessed.

"On January 25, 1984, Delisa appeared in court to formally recant her testimony and admit her guilt. She described for the trial judge, Justice Leahy, how she got into an argument with her foster mother, which escalated when Herndon blamed her for the death of her recently deceased child. Overcome with rage, Mrs. Carter testified that she began stabbing her foster mother, apparently too angered to realize what she was doing. As a result of her confession, the judge vacated Nathaniel's conviction and dismissed the indictment with prejudice. Because Delisa had immunity from prosecution, they could not press charges against her for the murder.

"After spending 28 months behind bars, Nathaniel Carter emerged from prison a free man. Seeking compensation for his wrongful conviction, he sued the New York Police Department for negligence. He ultimately received $450,000 in an out-of-court settlement with the city and $200,000 from the New York Court of Claims."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]