The conviction of a Brooklyn man who spent 35 years in prison has been vacated

In December 1982, four armed men stormed a Brooklyn bodega that served as a front for the marijuana trade and ordered two men who worked there to hand over drugs.

The men then shot the clerks and killed one of them, Jairam Gangaram, a 32-year-old father of four girls. The other clerk, Edward McClean, was shot in the stomach but survived.

Five years later, a jury convicted Detroy Livingston of manslaughter after the testimony of a troubled young woman with an addiction to crack cocaine who claimed to have been at the scene. Mr. Livingston, who had rejected a plea deal that would have set him free within 12 years, was sentenced to 25 years to life. He spent 35 years in prison and continued to maintain his innocence.

On Friday, prosecutors from Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office agreed that Mr. Livingston’s conviction should be vacated and the charges against him dismissed. They had come to that decision after an unusual request from one of Mr Gangaram’s daughters, Karen Dannett, who began investigating the case in 2000.

Ms Dannett said she began collecting every document she could find about the murder, hoping her research would bring her a sense of comfort. Instead, she was shocked to discover how thin the evidence was in the case and began to fear that the wrong man was in prison.

On Friday morning, Ms. Dannett, who lives in Georgia, appeared on a live screen in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where Judge Matthew D’Emic agreed to dismiss the case against Mr. Livingston.

“I’m sorry he had to suffer so long,” Mrs. Dannett said. “I can only pray that his later days are better days.”

Mr Livingston, 59, who was released on parole in 2021, said he was relieved and grateful his record was cleared of the conviction.

“I knew it was coming,” he said.

Mr. Livingston’s case was the 36th cleared since 2014 by the Conviction Review Unit, a team of prosecutors within the Brooklyn district attorney’s office charged with investigating convictions. The unit has reopened about 40 other potentially mishandled cases, the vast majority of which involve murder convictions.

Charles Linehan, head of the investigative unit, told Judge D’Emic that the case against Mr Livingston rested on the word of Tracey Evans, then aged 19, who made numerous contradictory statements to police and did not tell investigators about her drug addiction, which had affected her memory.

Prosecutors from the investigating unit analyzed the witness statements and concluded the case was “irreparably flawed” with “flanking discrepancies” and “critical failures,” Mr Linehan said.

“Nearly 35 years later, we no longer have any confidence in the integrity of the conviction,” he said.

In 1982, detectives working the case learned of Ms. Evans’ murder less than two weeks after. She said she saw three men shoot a man in the bodega and identified them, although she did not name Mr. Livingston.

One of the men she identified, Dwayne Cook, later pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in exchange for a three- to nine-year prison sentence if he testified against Mr. Livingston. Mr. Cook later recanted and did not testify. None of the other men Ms. Evans identified were charged in the shootings.

The surviving clerk, Mr. McLean, told police he was never able to clearly see the gunman, who was wearing a stocking over his face.

Over the next four years, Ms. Evans repeatedly changed her story. In one version, she identified Mr. Livingston, whom she said she met through Mr. Cook, as one of four men who entered the bodega. In July 1986, Mr. Livingston was arrested.

Mr Livingston, who claimed he had not heard of the murder until he was accused, said he did not know Ms Evans and doubted he had ever entered the bodega.

“I don’t know anything about this,” Mr. Livingston said at his sentencing in 1987. “They found me guilty, and I can’t say anything else.”

Ms Dannett said his mother was haunted by the case for years after Mr Gangaram’s death and cried constantly.

In 2007, Ms Dannett said she had sent a letter to Mr Livingston and waited for his response because she was concerned he would be “bitter and angry”.

Instead, he wrote back, expressing optimism and gratitude for her willingness to question the matter.

“He always had a positive attitude,” Ms Dannett said. “His motto was: ‘I’m in it to win.’”

After the hearing, Mr. Livingston waved at Ms. Dannett, who looked at him with tears in her eyes.

As he stepped into the hallway, a woman came up to him and asked if he had just been cleared.

She was there to support her husband, she said, who was trying to overturn his own conviction.

“Don’t give up,” Mr. Livingston said.