Wrongful Conviction Overturned After Nearly Three Decades

The Connecticut Superior Court overturned the wrongful conviction of KLLF client Adam Carmon for a 1994 homicide, ruling that the State of Connecticut violated Mr. Carmon’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

“How can anyone have confidence in a verdict of guilty in a case such as this?” wrote Superior Court judge Jon M. Alander in a 51-page decision. The court found that the prosecution had improperly suppressed exculpatory evidence (known as Brady material) that “likely” would have led to a different outcome.

In a landmark ruling on the use of forensic evidence other than DNA to challenge old convictions, the court found that the firearms evidence used to identify the murder weapon in 1994 was “invalid” and “fallacious.” And, based on recent advances in eyewitness identification science, it found that “there exists a very substantial likelihood that [the two eyewitnesses] misidentified [Mr. Carmon] as the individual who shot into the window of 810 Orchard Street.”

The Associated Press and the New Haven Independent covered the decision.

KLLF’s Doug Lieb co-leads Mr. Carmon’s pro bono legal team alongside Attorney David Keenan, in partnership with lawyers from Arnold & Porter and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.