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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
37 years to Life imprisonment |
Years Imprisoned: |
18.75 |
Year Crime: |
1997 |
Year Convicted: |
1999 |
Year Cleared: |
2016 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
New York |
County or Region of Crime: |
Albany |
City of Crime: |
Albany |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Lavell R. Jones and Carl H. Dukes (aka Haniff Dukes) were codefendants wrongly convicted after separate trials of burglary, robbery and second-degree murder related to two incidents involving 23-year-old college student Eric Mitchell in Albany, New York. The first incident occurred on October 4, 1996 when four people forced their way into Mitchell's apartment while he was present and robbed him and took items from his apartment. Dukes and Jones were charged with the break-in, and Mitchell was subpoened to testify against them. Prior to a preliminary hearing Mitchell was shot to death on February 18, 1997. On February 27, 1997 Pierre Lyons gave Albany police a statement implicating himself in the Oct. 1996 burglary and robbery only, and that implicated Dukes and Jones in both the burglary/robbery and the murder four months later. Dukes and Jones were arrested in October 1997 on suspicion of being involved in the crime. After a six hour interrogation by Albany PD Detectives Kenneth Wilcox and Ronald Matos, Dukes signed a confession in which he said he was a lookout when Jones killed Mitchell. Armed with Dukes confession, the detectives were able to obtain a signed confession from Jones after 36 hours of interrogation. Both Dukes and Jones recanted their confessions as coerced. Carl Dukes was tried in late 1998, and Lavell Jones in May 1999, during which he presented an alibi defense. Their prosecutions for the burglary/robbery and the later murder were based on their confessions and the statement by Lyons. After their convictions by a jury, both men were sentenced to 37-1/2 years to life imprisonment. Lyons pled guilty to robbery regarding the Oct. 1996 incident, and after a jury trial he was acquitted on June 19, 2000 of Mitchell's murder, but convicted of intimidating a victim or witness in the third degree and sentenced to 1-1/3 to 4 years in prison. Jones' conviction was affirmed on appeal in 2001. In September 2014 51-year-old Jeffrey J. Conrad was arrested in Ohio for fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend at her home near Akron. During his interrogation Conrad confessed to committing Mitchell's murder in 1997. Albany police were notified, and officers travelled to Ohio where Conrad gave a videotaped confession in which he provided details of Mitchell's murder known only to the police and prosecutors. The Albany PD and the Albany County District Attorney's Office initiated a reinvestigation of Mitchell's In February 2015 the Albany Times Union reported that Conrad had confessed to Mitchell's murder. In June 2015 the Times Union reported that Mitchell had provided a video taped confession. The reinvestigation resulted in Lyons recanting his statement implicating Dukes and Jones in the crime. Lyons had been convicted on June 19, 2000 of intimidating a victim or witness in the third degree related to Mitchell's murder. Wilcox, who was killed in a 2006 auto accident, was involved in obtaining the false confession of Kevin Cherry to the murder of a drug dealer: Cherry was acquitted after his trial in 1999 when an eyewitness came forward and identified the actual killer. Based on Conrad's credible confession, Lyons' recantation, and Wilcox's history, the Albany County DA joined the motions by Dukes and Jones to vacate all their convictions which was granted on July 7, 2016, and the DA's motion to dismiss the charges was granted. Dukes and Jones then pled guilty to the robbery of Mitchell's apartment on October 4, 1996 that they had long admitted to being involved in, and they were sentenced to a maximum of 14 years in prison. After almost 19 years in custody they were released for time served. Prosecutors claimed that Mitchell's murder was the result of the participants in the robbery trying to intimidate him into not testifying against them." |
Conviction Caused By: |
"False confessions by Dukes and Jones coerced by two Albany police detectives, and the false statement of a codefendant who also implicated Dukes and Jones." |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Based on Conrad's credible confession and Lyons' recantation, the Albany County DA joined the motions by Dukes and Jones to vacate their convictions which was granted on July 7, 2016, and the DA's motion to dismiss the charges was granted." |
Defendant Aided By: |
"Attorneys Glenn Garber and Rebecca Freedman, the respective founder and assistant director of The Exoneration Initiative." |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
Yes |
Age When Imprisoned: |
19 |
Age When Released: |
38 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Black |
Information Source 1: |
"Albany men cleared in killing, freed after 20 years: Murder convictions for two men tossed after another man confesses to 1997 killing, By Robert Gavin (Staff writer), Albany Times Union, July 8, 2016" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/2-imprisoned-Albany-men-cleared-in-1997-killing-8346049.php |
Information Source 2: |
"People v. Jones, 283 AD 2d 665 - NY: Appellate Div., 3rd Dept. 2001 (Affirming convictions)" |
Information Location 2: |
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Information Source 3: |
"People v Lyons, 2004 NY Slip Op 00544 [4 AD3d 549] (Ny Sup. Ct., App Div, Third Dept, February 5, 2004) (Affirming Pierre Lyons conviction and providing factual background about the case.)" |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org