NEW YORK TIMES
Parole Is Granted in a 1995 Killing Investigated by a Brooklyn Detective
Revisiting Case Amid Doubts on Evidence: After 18 years in prison, Sundhe Moses was paroled. His case is part of a broad investigation into Louis Scarcella, a retired detective suspected of using questionable tactics and evidence.
By FRANCES ROBLES
Published: November 1, 2013
A man convicted of shooting and killing a 4-year-old girl nearly 20 years ago in Brooklyn was granted parole this week after doubts were raised about the tactics used by the detective who interrogated him.
Shamone Johnson, 4, died when a group of armed men opened fire on a playground in a Brownsville public housing complex.
That detective, Louis Scarcella, is the focus of a continuing investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, which reopened 50 of his trial convictions after it was revealed that he might have helped frame an innocent man and used the same witness over and over again.
The New York State Board of Parole decided to release Sundhe Moses, 37, after his lawyers documented flaws in his prosecution in the child’s killing — a sharp departure for the board, which historically required inmates to admit guilt and express remorse to be set free.
The decision was the first time since the district attorney’s review of the 50 cases commenced in May that a defendant investigated by Mr. Scarcella, who is retired, had been ordered released.
“I’m forgiving, but I’m also angry,” Mr. Moses said on Friday by phone from Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, near the Canadian border. “I lost a lot of time in prison.”
Mr. Moses was convicted of the August 1995 killing of Shamone Johnson, who died when a group of armed men seeking revenge for the death of a friend known as “Killer Ben” opened fire on a playground in a Brownsville public housing complex.
When he testified at his 1997 murder trial, Mr. Moses said one detective wrote the confession while Mr. Scarcella used physical abuse to get him to sign it.
Over the years, other inmates had made similar claims about Mr. Scarcella, which he has denied. One inmate, David Ranta, was released in March after 23 years in prison when the district attorney’s office documented a series of problems with the detective’s work. The office’s Conviction Integrity Unit later opened its review of the 50 cases.
Mr. Moses enlisted lawyers to take up his case after reading an investigation of Mr. Scarcella in The New York Times earlier this year. A 26-year-old junior lawyer, Leah M. Busby, tracked down witnesses on the inmate’s behalf.
The parole board made its decision after a key witness to the playground shooting recanted. The witness, Sharron Ivory, told Ms. Busby, and then investigators from the district attorney’s office, that detectives had coached him on which person to pick out. Mr. Ivory was also able to demonstrate that in the months before the trial, he had amended his account of the killing to coincide with details that the police provided, such as the kind of gun an assailant had used.
“I sent in a notarized affidavit with an apology to this man for lying on him and for helping a dirty cop taking this man’s life from him,” Mr. Ivory, who is in prison in connection with an unrelated homicide, wrote to the parole board. His recantation was especially valuable because the victim was his cousin.
Ms. Busby also sent the board an affidavit declaring Mr. Moses’ innocence that was signed by one of the men who had participated in the crime but had been acquitted. Because of the acquittal, that defendant cannot be retried.
Lawyers say preparing a parole application based on a claim of innocence is risky, because parole boards want to see inmates say they are sorry. A defendant who lacks remorse is considered more likely to commit other crimes. Indeed, a guilty person who pretends to be remorseful is more likely to be released than a person who says he did not do it, said Daniel S. Medwed, a Northeastern University professor who has studied the issue.
“It is grounded in the 19th-century quasi-religious belief that you have to come to Jesus and admit your sins to be saved,” Professor Medwed said. “Therefore, a prisoner who claims innocence has no real reason for doing it. It’s going to hurt you more than help you.”
The parole board has, in isolated instances, granted parole to inmates who claimed innocence, suggesting a growing acknowledgment of the possibility of wrongful convictions, Professor Medwed said.
At his first parole hearing two years ago, Mr. Moses accepted responsibility for the crime and apologized. He recently said he decided to change his testimony because he finally had something tangible that could give credence to his allegations of misconduct.
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