Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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Juan Carlos Pichardo

 

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

20 years to life imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

6.43

Year Crime:

1994

Year Convicted:

1994

Year Cleared:

2000

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:

"Juan Carlos Pichardo was wrongly convicted on October 18, 1994 of second-degree murder in New York County (Manhattan), New York. Pichardo's prosecution was based on a single eyewitness who identified him as the shooter. Pichardo's court-appointed lawyer convinced him to waive his right to a jury trial. Juan Pichardo testified in his defense that he wasn't at the crime scene. After a bench (judge only) trial, Juan Pichardo was convicted, and on November 14, 1994 was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Pichardo's direct appeal was denied. On June 24, 1998 Pichardo filed a post-conviction petition seeking a new trial based on ineffective assisance of his trial counsel. On January 11, 2000 the judge who presided over Pichardo's trial vacated his conviction and ordered a new trial based on the ineffective assistance of his trial counsel, for being "unfamiliar with important Rosario material in his possession, failing to impeach the People's primary witness -- the only witness connecting defendant to the shooting -- and never calling potentially exculpatory witnesses to challenge that identification. In vacating the murder conviction, the Trial Judge coupled these failures with defense counsel's "regrettable ignorance of basic principles of criminal law, his failure to recognize the appropriate scope of cross-examination of his client before putting him on the witness stand, and his failure to effectively challenge the People's identification evidence, misidentification being a defense entirely compatible with and ordinarily accompanying the defense of alibi." (People v. Pichardo, 1 N.Y.3d 126, 128 (NY Court of Appeals 2003)) After a retrial Pichardo was acquitted by a jury on June 15, 2000. Juan Pichardo filed a claim in the New York State Court of Claims under New York's wrongful imprisonment statute, and he was awarded $200,000 in compensation in 2005."

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"After a retrial Juan Pichardo was acquitted by a jury on June 15, 2000."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$200,000 (State of New York, 2005)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

23

Age When Released:

29

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Hispanic

Information Source 1:

"Lawyers Often Fail New York's Poor, By Jane Fritsch and David Rohde, The New York Times, April 8, 2001"

Information Location 1:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/08/nyregion/lawyers-often-fail-new-york-s-poor.html?pagewanted=all

Information Source 2:

"Pichardo v. The State Of New York , #2004-028-516, Claim No. 106211 (New York State Court of Claims)"

Information Location 2:

http://vertumnus.courts.state.ny.us/claims/html/2004-028-516.html

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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org

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