A quarter century later, woman is exonerated in NYC killing
Source: Associated Press
Feb 23, 4:45 PM EST
A quarter century later, woman is exonerated in NYC killing
By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
[font size=1]
AP Photo
Vanessa Gathers smiles during a hearing to vacate her wrongful conviction at
Brooklyn Supreme Court in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Gathers, who was
convicted in a deadly robbery a quarter century ago, was exonerated Tuesday
after prosecutors concluded she made a false confession to a detective whose
tactics have come under question. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
[/font]
NEW YORK (AP) -- Five years after Vanessa Gathers told police she had nothing to do with a deadly robbery, a detective questioned her again and got a confession that would put Gathers in prison for 10 years.
Nearly two decades later, Gathers was cleared after prosecutors concluded her since-recanted confession was false, peppered with facts that didn't add up. It was made to a detective whose tactics have come under question.
"I feel great," Gathers, 58, said as she left court Tuesday, in tears but smiling, and hugged her lawyers and Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson. As for what she would do next: "Go on with my life."
Gathers had already been freed on parole in 2007, but prosecutors' successful bid Tuesday to get her manslaughter conviction dismissed frees her of a felony record and association with the death of 71-year-old Michael Shaw. He was beaten in his Brooklyn apartment on Nov. 18, 1991, and died of his injuries five months later.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONVICTIONS_QUESTIONED_NYOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-02-23-16-45-35