Saying the sole eyewitness at a murder trial gave “patently false” testimony, the Brooklyn district attorney [Kenneth P. Thompson] said on Monday that he would move to clear the conviction of Derrick Hamilton, who spent about two decades in prison for a 1991 murder.
Mr. Hamilton, 49, who was paroled in 2011, had aggressively fought his conviction; he has also been a regular presence at hearings about other wrongful convictions in Brooklyn.
Mr. Hamilton was convicted of killing Nathaniel Cash in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Mr. Hamilton has maintained he was in Connecticut, and said that Louis Scarcella, a retired detective whose methods have come under question and whose murder convictions are under review by the district attorney, framed him . . .
Only one eyewitness took the stand at Mr. Hamilton’s trial: Mr. Cash’s girlfriend, Jewel Smith.
Mr. Thompson said his conviction review unit, which is looking into Mr. Scarcella’s cases and others, found major problems with her story.
