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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
23 years to life |
Years Imprisoned: |
18.5 |
Year Crime: |
1991 |
Year Convicted: |
1992 |
Year Cleared: |
2009 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
New York |
County or Region of Crime: |
New York |
City of Crime: |
New York City |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Fernando Bermudez was found to have been wrongfully convicted of a 1991 murder by Justice John Cataldo of the Manhattan Supreme Court on November 12, 2009. Justice Cataldo found Mr. Bermudez was actually innocent of the murder of Raymond Blount by clear and convincing evidence. In addition, Justice Cataldo found that the original conviction in 1992 rested substantially on perjured testimony, that the prosecutor knew or should have known that the testimony was perjured, and that the four original stranger-on-stranger eyewitness identifications (which had since been withdrawn by those witnesses ) were hopelessly contaminated by the joint viewing of mugshots during the investigation of the case. Independent of the improprieties, however, Justice Cataldo found that the evidence before him, including new evidence, clearly established that Bermudez was innocent. Bermudez was released on November 20, 2009. In 2010 Bermudez filed a claim for compensation with the State of New York. In November 2014 the State of New York awarded Bermudez compensation of $4.75 million. Bermudez filled a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York and the NYPD. It was announced on February 14, 2017 that Bermudez and the City of New York agreed to settle his lawsuit for $7 million." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Perjury by key prosecution witness. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Fernando Bermudez was found to be actually innocent of a 1991 murder by Justice John Cataldo of the Manhattan Supreme Court on November 12, 2009. Bermudez was released on November 20, 2009." |
Defendant Aided By: |
"Seton Hall law Professor Lesley Risinger, Professor Michael Risinger, and attorneys Barry Pollock and Alan Kaufman." |
Compensation Awarded: |
"$11.75 million total. $4.75 million (State of New York, Nov. 2014), $7 million (City of New York, Feb. 2017)" |
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
23 |
Age When Released: |
41 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Fernando Bermudez declared innocent after serving 18 years in prison for murder, By Melissa Grace (staff), New York Daiily News, November 12, 2009" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/12/2009-11-12_fernando_bermudez_.html |
Information Source 2: |
"Wrongfully convicted New York man reaches $4.75-million settlement, By Javier Panzar and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times, December 23,2014" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-wrongful-conviction-settlement-20141223-story.html |
Information Source 3: |
"NYC to pay $7M to man wrongly imprisoned for 18 years, By Victoria Bekiempis, New York Daily News, Feb. 14, 2017" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/nyc-pay-7m-man-wrongly-imprisoned-18-years-article-1.2972168 |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org