New York man freed after 19 years in prison for robbery he didn't commit

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who spent nearly two decades in prison for a roughly $550 robbery was exonerated and freed Monday, after prosecutors said they now agree he didn't commit the crime.

“It cost me 20 years, but they said they corrected it now. So that's all that matters. So I’m good with that,” Kenneth Windley, 61, said as he left a Brooklyn courthouse, at liberty for the first time since 2007.

A judge threw out his conviction and dismissed his case entirely, at the request of both prosecutors and Windley's lawyers. Prosecutors said new evidence — including confessions from two other men who were convicted of similar robberies — supported his longstanding claim of innocence.

“This case is really a cautionary tale of how things can seem one way but, without careful analysis, not be what it purports to be," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, a Democrat, said after shaking Windley's hand outside court.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/york-man-freed-19-years-205247012.html

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Even if he had done it 19 years seems a bit excessive for a $550 robbery.

[Cirsium]

1. More than a bit excessive

Criming while Black, or in this case looking sorta like someone criming while Black.

"Looking sorta like" means just living while Black.

[DoBW]

2. good for Kenneth

[FakeNoose]

3. Kenneth Windley

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Glad his mom lived to see that day. nt

[FakeNoose]

10. Yes that's why I posted this photo

[PatSeg]

4. 19 years was an insane sentence for robbery

This country has a real incarceration problem. If he is being let out now, I wonder how long the original sentence was. That would be extremely excessive even if he WAS guilty.

There are so many ways to hold people accountable, but incarceration should be reserved to violent criminals and unrepentant repeat offenders.

[chouchou]

5. 19 years? ...and many of Trump's Boys and Girls are robbing the taxpayers as we speak.

Call me pissed off to infinity.

[C Moon]

6. It seems when this happens, they are so scared about going back that they act like they are grateful.

Very sad.
20 years of his life lost.

[oasis]

7. 19 years for robbery? People have gotten less

time for manslaughter.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. He had prior convictions, hence the 20-to-life. Also, there was a check for $542 in evidence, but others stolen.

Robbers assaulted a man and took his checks, money, and bank book. They sold one of the checks to the guy who got arrested when he passed the check. But there was not enough evidence, IMHO, to convince a jury that he was the robber. The timeline is not clear from the article, but it sounds like they could have caught their mistake a lot sooner.

I looked up the article expecting to see an assault with a deadly weapon was involved. But it was apparently only the priors that got him such a long sentence.