Jeffrey Mark Deskovic (born October 27, 1973)[1] is an American attorney from Peekskill, New York known for freeing the wrongly convicted. In 1990, at the age of 17, he was convicted of raping, beating, and strangling his Peekskill High School classmate, Angela Correa, who was 15 at the time of the murder.
During a months-long investigation, which included extensive interrogations, he made a false confession that was immediately withdrawn, but became the basis for his conviction. He served 16 years, some in an adult "super max" as a minor, while maintaining his innocence. He requested post-conviction DNA testing, but the DA's office, then headed by Jeanine Pirro, refused to accept his lay request.
In 2006, with support by the Innocence Project, crime scene DNA testing led to Steven Cunningham, who was serving time for subsequent murder committed in the same fashion. Cunningham confessed to having committed the murder.
In 2014 a jury found in favor of Deskovic and awarded him $41.6 million in a federal civil suit against the county for wrongful imprisonment. Due to his pretrial settlement with the county, he was limited to receive $10 million, which he used to establish his foundation.
Biography
editJeffrey Deskovic was born in 1973 in North Tarrytown, in Westchester County. He attended public schools, including Peekskill High School. He was not popular at school.
On November 15, 1989 in Peekskill, New York, Correa disappeared after going out with a portable cassette player and a camera for a project for her photography class. Two days later her body was found, and police determined she had been raped and strangled. Deskovic was among the many students who attended her funeral; he was so distraught that he cried openly during the service.
The police thought Deskovic was showing suspicious behavior and took him into custody as a potential suspect.[2] They interrogated him at length. Deskovic later said that, under coercion, he made a false confession, fabricating an account based on crime scene information fed to him by police officers during their leading questions in the course of the interrogation. Deskovic also said: "By the police officer's own testimony, by the end of the interrogation I was on the floor crying uncontrollably in what they described as a fetal position".[3]
Although DNA testing at the time excluded Deskovic from the forensic DNA found in Correa's body, on December 7, 1990 a jury convicted Deskovic. They were apparently convinced by testimony from Peekskill police detective Daniel Stephens that the young man had confessed to the crime.[3]
Deskovic continued to proclaim his innocence on numerous occasions after his conviction. The office of Westchester County district attorney (DA) Jeanine Pirro, who took office after he was imprisoned, refused to accept his lay request to reopen the case.[4] From at least 2000, Deskovic appealed to D.A. Pirro to run post-conviction DNA testing, as he believed it would prove his innocence. Pirro declined to run any DNA tests that could help release him from prison.[5] Deskovic's case was taken by the Innocence Project, which provided him with defense counsel. They repeated his attempt to gain DNA testing.
In 2006, the newly elected district attorney, Janet DiFiore, authorized DNA testing of Deskovic. It excluded his DNA from that found at the scene. The DNA from the crime scene was found to match that of Steven Cunningham, a man who was already serving a life term for another murder. Confronted with the DNA evidence, he later confessed and pleaded guilty to the Correa murder.[6]
Exoneration and release
editDeskovic's conviction was overturned and he was released from prison in 2006.[6] A subsequent independent review of the case, written by retired judges Leslie Crocker Snyder and Peter J. McQuillan, along with former Staten Island D.A. William L. Murphy; and Richard Joselson of Legal Aid, criticized police and the former prosecutor for failure to pursue other leads and for downplaying the DNA evidence that led to Deskovic's exoneration. According to the report, errors were made throughout the entire case, including tunnel vision by both police and the previous prosecutor, along with reliance on profiling which turned out to be completely incorrect, followed by deliberate downplaying of the DNA evidence that ultimately proved Deskovic was innocent.[7][8]
Aftermath
editDeskovic now works as an advocate for reform of the criminal justice system. He educates the public through public speaking, published articles, and the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, which he established.
Deskovic attended college, receiving a bachelor's degree in behavioral science from Mercy College[9] in 2008[10] and a master's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2013.[9] He has also received a Juris Doctor degree from Pace University.
Deskovic filed a federal civil rights suit against Putnam County and the state for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. In October 2014 a jury found in his favor and awarded him $41.6 million: "$25 million for the time he spent wrongfully imprisoned, $15 million for his suffering, and the rest for lost wages over those years."[11] Based on a pre-trial settlement with the county, intended to limit the potential payout, Deskovic would receive a total of $10 million. The jury’s verdict showed that they believed the county was responsible for the "flawed process that led to Deskovic’s conviction."[11]
In 2019, a documentary film titled Conviction was produced based on Deskovic's life by a Canadian filmmaker Jia Rizivi.[12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.deskovic/about [user-generated source]
- ^ Seigel, Jessica (25 March 2021). "The truth about lying". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-032421-1. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
- ^ a b "An Innocent Man Speaks: PLN Interviews Jeff Deskovic", Prison Legal News, 15 August 2013
- ^ Santos, Fernanda (21 September 2006). "DNA Evidence Frees a Man Imprisoned For Half His Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
- ^ "INNOCENT MAN'S DNA PLEA NIXED BY DA PIRRO". 2006-10-15. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
- ^ a b Fernanda Santos (21 September 2006). "DNA Evidence Frees a Man Imprisoned for Half His Life". The New York Times.
- ^ "Playing Down DNA Evidence Contributed to Wrongful Conviction, Review Finds". The New York Times. July 3, 2007.
- ^ "Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic" (PDF). June 2007.
- ^ a b Marie Roser (2015-11-02). "Life After Being Wrongfully Convicted". The Impact. Mercy College.
- ^ Fernanda Santos (2007-11-25). "Vindicated by DNA, but a Lost Man on the Outside". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Albert Samaha, "Jury Awards Upstate Man $41 Million for 16-Year Wrongful Imprisonment" Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine, Village Voice, 24 October 2014
- ^ "Calgary filmmaker battles injustice with features about wrongfully convicted". calgaryherald.com. Retrieved 14 August 2024.