A judge on Tuesday granted a new trial to the man convicted in the 1990 murder of a Utah tourist – throwing out a verdict in a case that helped crystallize an era of crime and fear in the nation’s biggest city.
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The horrific slaying became a symbol of the city’s terrifying crime epidemic, and the New York Post famously ran a front page at the time imploring then-Mayor David Dinkins: “Dave, Do Something!”
A Manhattan judge overturned Johnny Hincapie’s conviction…
Johnny Hicapie walked out of the courthouse Tuesday a free man after serving 25 years for a notorious 1990 subway murder that he has maintained he did not commit.
Watkins, 22, was with his family as they headed to Greenwich Village for dinner following a match.
The gang robbed the family for money to get into Roseland Ballroom, where Hincapie and Santana were headed for a night of dancing.
Another defendant was accused of actually stabbing Watkins, but authorities said the whole group bore responsibility for his death.
“Johnny was innocent since the beginning”, said Carlos Hincapie.
Justice Eduardo Padro declined to grant Hincapie’s actual innocence claim but said new evidence brought by his defense team was enough to grant a new trial and toss out the decades-old conviction.
Joan Vollero, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., said the office would review Prado’s ruling to consider whether to appeal, but was committed to a retrial if the judge’s decision stands. But Hincapie and the five others were still convicted in the case, and while four have since been paroled, Hincapie refused to admit his guilty and stayed behind bars.
Prosecutors said there was “no credible newly discovered evidence”.
At a hearing before Prado, three witnesses backed his story.
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Hincapie’s lawyers had asked Prado to declare him innocent, clearing him of the charges.
