DA Thompson explains conviction review mission

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson sat down with News 12 Monday to discuss his record on vindicating people wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in the borough. "Wrongful convictions not only

News 12 Staff

Feb 16, 2016, 5:11 AM

Updated 2,986 days ago

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DA Thompson explains conviction review mission
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson sat down with News 12 Monday to discuss his record on vindicating people wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in the borough.
"Wrongful convictions not only destroy the lives of those who are wrongfully convicted and their families, they undermine the integrity of our criminal justice system," Thompson says.
To battle the issue, Thompson created a conviction review unit in his office with 10 full-time prosecutors and a group of dedicated investigators combing through cases.
In the last two years, 17 of 50 Brooklyn men whose convictions were investigated under Thompson's direction had their guilty verdicts overturned. Some died before their exonerations.
"It's also important to make sure that innocent people don't languish and die in prison for crimes they did not commit," Thompson says. "What we have to do here in Brooklyn is to correct those types of miscarriages of justice and show the country that we can lead the nation in fairness."


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