A four-decade battle to clear their names of murder ends in exoneration

Just after midnight on New Year's Day in 1987, a French couple visiting New York City after dinner was separated from their group and attacked while walking through Midtown Manhattan.

The couple, Jean and Renée Casse, were on 52nd Street when Mr. Casse was robbed, attacked and thrown to the ground. Days after Mr Casse, 71, died from injuries to his neck and head, two people – Eric Smokes and David Warren – were arrested in the attack. By the summer, the two had been convicted.

For nearly the next four decades, Mr. Smokes, who was 19 when he was arrested, and Mr. Warren, who was 16, tried unsuccessfully to clear their names. Until Wednesday, when under a new prosecutor, the two men's convictions were overturned and their charges dismissed.

“Eric Smokes and David Warren lost decades of their lives to a wrongful conviction,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg said in a statement. “I am inspired by the unyielding advocacy of Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren and hope that today's decision can finally bring them some measure of comfort and justice.”

During hearings that began in November 2018 and lasted for months, the Manhattan district attorney's office fought an effort by the men, who had been paroled years earlier, to overturn their convictions. A judge denied the defense's motion in January 2020.

Now, four years later, the agency has reversed its position.

A new investigation that began in 2022 in collaboration with the men's attorneys uncovered new evidence and “the people believe that the only legally correct and just outcome is to overturn these convictions,” said Terri S. Rosenblatt, the agency's head of Post-Conviction. Justice Unit, wrote in a court filing in October.

On Wednesday, a judge finally agreed with Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren.

“Thirty years later, you're still fighting for your justice, in front of a court that tells you those convictions were not justified, and so today I'm going to grant you that,” Judge Stephen Antinani said as the courtroom erupted. to whoops and applause.

A growing number of convictions from the 1990s — when rising crime in New York City prompted law enforcement agencies to pursue arrests at all costs — have been overturned in recent years. Those whose names have been cleared are predominantly black and Hispanic.

About 124 murder convictions have been overturned in New York City since 1989, a notable share of the 1,317 overturned nationwide, according to The New York Times. National register of exonerations. In fiscal year 2022, the city settled cases involving 16 wrongful convictions, the most of any year, according to the city ​​controller office. The settlements totaled nearly $87 million.

The reinvestigation of Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren's cases began around the same time that Mr. Bragg announced the creation of the Post-Conviction Justice Unit, which would work with people who hoped to have their convictions overturned. Since then, in addition to the cases of Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren, the office has successfully cleared nine cases investigated by the unit, a spokesman said.

Mr. Warren and Mr. Smokes spent long years in prison and were released on parole in 2007 and 2011. But decades before, the case against them had moved quickly.

Just weeks after Mr. Casse's death, prosecutors in Manhattan filed paperwork with the court saying that both Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren said they knew each other; had gone to Midtown together on New Year's Eve and spent the night together; and that Mr. Smokes had “hit a young man in the head” on 41st Street.

Both denied going north of 48th Street that evening. Still, four witnesses identified the two men in a line and provided testimony that placed them on 52nd Street, according to court documents.

Five teenage witnesses identified Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren as those who assaulted and robbed Mr. Casse.

One witness initially testified at the trial that he “saw the old man fall and hit his head on the concrete wall,” and later that he “saw the next guy go through the bags.” However, during the re-examination he told prosecutors that he felt like a suspect himself and that he had fingered Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren partly to “avoid being arrested himself.”

In July 1987, it took a jury three days of deliberation and what the foreman called “great emotional turmoil” to find Mr. Smokes and Mr. Warren guilty, prosecutors said.

According to a juror, the now suspect witness statements were of crucial importance in the deliberation room. The juror, Luana Dunn, said in a July 2023 affidavit that the initial vote at the start of deliberations had been 7-5 in favor of acquittal. But after rereading the testimony, “the voices started turning to blame,” she said.

After hours, the vote was 11 to 1 in favor of a guilty verdict, with the exception of one “Spanish lady who didn't want to change her vote,” Ms. Dunn said.

“She cried and became very emotional because she didn't believe the police testimony at all,” she said. “We couldn't convince her, even though things got a little heated and we started bullying her to avoid a hung jury. In the end she voted guilty.”

Anusha Bayya reporting contributed.