Today in New York, our client Felipe Rodriguez was exonerated exactly three years to the day after he was granted a sentence commutation.
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John,
Today in New York, our client Felipe Rodriguez was exonerated exactly three years to the day after he was granted a sentence commutation by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Felipe has been free from prison since then, but today’s exoneration lifts the burden of wrongful conviction he has carried for almost three decades.
“I thought [that getting out of prison] was the greatest moment of my life, but the only thing that was free was my body,” Felipe said about his sentence commutation three years ago. With today’s exoneration achieved with representation from the Innocence Project and the Law Office of Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, Felipe says he is “absolutely, completely free.”
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Felipe Rodriguez, center, moments after his exoneration with his attorneys Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project (left) and Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma (right). Photo by Sameer Abdel-Khalek.
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Felipe was convicted of murder in 1990 based largely on the testimony of a police informant who was a suspect himself. In a recorded pretrial statement, the informant admitted he had repeatedly lied to police and had been coerced into falsely claiming he had information about the murder. He also gave a new, contradictory statement on the day of Felipe’s arrest, which was recorded in detectives’ notes but never heard by the jury.
Today’s exoneration came after a lengthy reinvestigation of the case by the Innocence Project and the Queens County District Attorney’s Office. The investigation led to the discovery of police notes and reports containing evidence supporting Felipe’s innocence, but which had been unlawfully withheld from his defense attorney. This evidence directly contradicted the already weak case against Felipe presented at trial, and the Queens DA joined the Innocence Project in asking the court to throw out Felipe’s conviction.
“Amidst the joy of today’s exoneration, let’s not forget that Felipe’s wrongful conviction could well have been prevented three decades ago if he’d received a fair trial and the jury had heard the evidence presented in court today,” said his attorney Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project, who represented Felipe for nearly 13 years.
Since his release, Felipe has gotten married and worked steadily at a hotel as a member of the Hotel Trades Council Union. The union leadership, moved by Felipe’s story and his record of achievements and community service in prison, gave him the opportunity to rebuild his life with a living wage after release — despite the fact that he still had a conviction on his record until today.
Felipe never gave up on being exonerated, and your support allowed us to keep working toward this day. On behalf of Felipe and all our clients hoping to see their day of freedom in 2020, we thank you.
With gratitude,
Maddy deLone
Executive Director
Innocence Project
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Started in 1992 as a legal clinic at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project is now an independent nonprofit, affiliated with Cardozo, that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
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