A man who spent nearly two decades in prison for a roughly $550 robbery was exonerated and freed on Monday, after prosecutors said they now agree he didn’t commit the crime, Associated Press reports.
“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, was quoted as saying as he left a Brooklyn courthouse, at liberty for the first time since 2007.
The report published on Tuesday revealed that 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, reportedly said after shaking Windley’s hand outside court.
“Had we known what the evidence was, this case should have never happened,” he added, noting that he had apologised privately to Windley.
AP reports that Windley was arrested in 2005 after buying a stove for his mother with a money order that turned out to be stolen, while Windley denied that he was involved in the robbery.
The money order had reportedly been snatched from a 70-year-old Gerald Ross by two thieves who followed him home from a trip to a bank and a post office.
According to NBC News, a review of the case that the prosecutor’s office released on Monday revealed that two men followed the old man into his apartment building and robbed him in the elevator, stealing $485 in cash and two blank, unsigned money orders — one for $542, the other for $9.
AP added that the thieves put Ross in a chokehold and took the money orders, cash, and a bank book from him.
“Ross regularly got money orders for his rent and life insurance payments at that post office, which helped him and the authorities follow a paper trail after the robbery.
“The trail soon led to Windley, who had given his name, driver’s license and address when purchasing the stove at an appliance store.
“From the start, Windley said he had nothing to do with the robbery. He said he’d simply bought a $542.77 money order at a discount from a couple of acquaintances, who insisted that it was valid but that they couldn’t use it for a bureaucratic reason,” the report continued.
According to the review, Windley testified that he’d never used a money order before and didn’t ask whether it was stolen.
“He was duped,” one of Windley’s lawyers, David Shanies, reportedly told the court Monday.
Ross was said to have identified Windley as one of the thieves from a photo array and then a live lineup, both of which were six weeks or longer after the robbery.
AP’s report continued, “Windley testified at his trial, telling jurors how his acquaintances had approached him and sold him the money order, but the jury convicted him in 2007 of robbery. Because of prior felony convictions, he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. His appeals failed.
“Early on, Windley told prosecutors what he knew about the men who sold him the money order: their nicknames and some information about their legal names. After his conviction, a friend and private investigators helped him flesh out the men’s identities and persuade them to come forward about what had happened, according to the D.A.’s report.
“In sworn statements and then in interviews with D.A.’s office representatives, the two men said that they had robbed Ross together and that Windley was not involved, according to the report. It called their admissions “compelling.”
“It doesn’t give their names, referring to them only as “Suspect 1” and “Suspect 2.” Both are serving prison time on other robbery convictions, according to the D.A.’s office. Those convictions all involved male victims in their 60s and older who were followed home from banks and check-cashing offices in Brooklyn in 2005 and 2006.”
Prosecutors were said to have concluded that if the jury had known those men’s identities and robbery records, the information would likely have raised a reasonable doubt about the charge against Windley.
“No new charges have been brought in the case. The legal time frame for bringing charges ran out years ago, and Ross has died,” AP added.
While heading off on Monday afternoon to celebrate with his family, Windley reportedly said he wasn’t bitter about what he’d been through.
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“I’m just going to move on from there,” he was quoted as saying.