ושבתי וראיתי דמעת העשוקים...
ואין להם מנחם. (ספר קהלת).
ליינענדיק היינט די טיימס, האב איך באמערקט א אינטערסאנטע מעשה. דא:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/nyregion/20palladium.html?pagewanted=print
און א דאנק דעם וואס דער שרייבער דארט האט געשפאהרט אויף ווערטער, האב איך מיר גענומען די מיה, און נאך געפארשט דער מעשה'לע, און וואס קען איך עהנק זאגען רבותי, ס'האט מיר גענומען צום הארצען...
דא איז דער מעשה פון דער טיימ'ס:
October 20, 2005
Free After 14 Years, and Learning to Use a Cell
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS and COLIN MOYNIHAN
David Lemus, who spent the last 14 years in jail for the 1990 killing of a bouncer at the Palladium nightclub, walked out of State Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan yesterday a free man, hours after a judge overturned his conviction in the killing.
"I thank God for answering my prayers," said Mr. Lemus, 36, who was wearing a denim jacket and the shadow of a beard. He held a 3-year-old cousin, Bianca, in one arm, and another, 4-year-old Anne Marie, by the hand, as he approached waiting reporters and television cameras.
The feeling of freedom was so foreign to him, he said, that even after his release, he automatically expected to be put in handcuffs. "I went to put my hands behind my back and they said you don't have to wear those anymore."
Still, Mr. Lemus's troubles are not over.
Prosecutors said yesterday that they intended to retry him. In the meantime, he was released on $100,000 bond, and his lawyers said he planned to live with his mother, Nilsa Huertas, and her fiancé, Ira Gorny, at their home near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., until the trial, which probably will not take place until next year.
Ms. Huertas was in court yesterday and said that she had been waiting for her son to be released so he could walk down the aisle at her wedding.
In some ways, Mr. Lemus seemed like Rip Van Winkle. It was as if Mr. Lemus had been asleep for 14 years while the world moved on.
As he and his lawyers walked away from the courthouse, the lawyers handed him cellphones to talk to friends, and Mr. Lemus seemed to not know how to use them.
In vacating the conviction, Justice Roger S. Hayes said there was new evidence, supported by new witnesses, that Mr. Lemus was not the killer. This evidence, he said, might have led the jury to a "more favorable" verdict.
The trail that led to Mr. Lemus's release began about 10 years ago, when a federal prosecutor and a police detective were investigating a drug gang in the South Bronx. A gang member, looking for a deal, admitted that he was responsible for killing the Palladium bouncer, a crime for which Mr. Lemus and another man, Olmado Hidalgo, had already been convicted. The prosecutor, Steven M. Cohen, and the detective, Robert Addolorato, spent years trying to exonerate the two men.
In July, Justice Hayes overturned Mr. Hidalgo's conviction and he was deported to the Dominican Republic, because of an unrelated gun charge.
The bouncer, Marcus Peterson, was killed, and another bouncer, Jeffrey Craig, was injured after a fistfight escalated into gunfire outside the nightclub near Union Square in the early-morning hours of Nov. 23, 1990. Mr. Lemus and Mr. Hidalgo were convicted of the murder in 1992.
About two years later, during the investigation of the drug gang, a gang member, Joey Pillot, confessed that he and a friend, Thomas Morales, were responsible for the Palladium shooting, Mr. Cohen said. Mr. Morales was indicted for murder in March and is awaiting trial. Mr. Pillot is serving a life sentence for a gang-related murder.
Defense lawyers said Mr. Lemus and Mr. Hidalgo were not even at the Palladium that night.
Yesterday, Justice Hayes cited Mr. Hidalgo's case in his 54-page decision, saying, "Perhaps the most compelling reason to grant Lemus a new trial may be found in the people's acknowledgment that the identical evidence compels the vacating of Hidalgo's conviction."
Mr. Lemus said he called Mr. Hidalgo, 39, on a cellphone before leaving the courthouse to tell him that he was free, and that Mr. Hidalgo broke down upon hearing the news.
"We're brothers, beyond friends," Mr. Lemus said.
עכ"פ, זיכענדיק פאר מער פרטים, בין איך אהנגעקומען צו דעם:
http://www.kronishlieb.com/palladium.cfm
Palladium Case
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK v. DAVID LEMUS and Olmedo HIDALGO
(Ind. Nos. 674/91 and 12833/91)
Introduction
On November 23, 1990, a shooting took place at the Palladium nightclub in Manhattan that left one man dead and another injured. In 1992, David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo were convicted of the murder and attempted murder largely on the basis of eyewitness testimony. However, substantial evidence (including evidence known to the prosecution before trial and additional evidence developed over the last dozen years) demonstrates that neither Lemus nor Hidalgo were involved in or even present at the events that unfolded at the Palladium on November 23.
The Lemus and Hidalgo case came to Kronish Lieb in an unusual way. In 1994, while employed as a federal prosecutor, Kronish Lieb partner Steve Cohen, along with other federal prosecutors and New York City Police detectives, was investigating a street gang known as C&C. As part of that investigation, Mr. Cohen participated in debriefing a gang member who admitted that he and a fellow gang member -- not Lemus and Hidalgo -- were responsible for the shootings at the Palladium. Although the new information was turned over to the Manhattan Assistant District Attorneys, who were responsible for the investigation, and then to the defense, the trial judge ultimately rejected Lemus's and Hidalgo's efforts to overturn the convictions. When Mr. Cohen left the U.S. Attorney's office and joined Kronish Lieb, he began working on behalf of Lemus and Hidalgo in an effort to obtain their release. Over the past 5 years, Kronish Lieb has been involved in providing advice and legal representation to David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo, and recently participated in the filing of briefs that seek to vacate their convictions. Current and former Kronish Lieb associates Anne Nacinovich, Shelly Friedland, and Jeff Lang are currently assisting in this effort.
On February 18, 2005, Judge Roger Hayes ordered a hearing on the defendants' claims that their convictions should be overturned both because the government's failure to disclose exculpatory materials deprived them of a fair trial and because new evidence exculpates them.
Witnesses testified for a total of two weeks in April and May 2005. At the close of the hearing on May 26th, Judge Hayes asked for final briefs from both sides and indicated that he intends to issue his decision quickly.
ארום קוקענדיק מער אויף די נעט, האב איך באמערקט, אז דאס איז בכלל נישט אזא אויסטערלישע ערשיינונג, און לפי אלע מומחים, איז כהיום הזה, א גרויסע חלק פון די וואס יושב'ן, בכלל נישט אהנגעבינדען צו די שולדען וואס מ'טוט זיי דערמיט באשולדיגען.
(איך מיין אז פאר רעכטראכטענדע מענטשען, קען נישט זיין א בעסערע סיבה, נישט צו צולאזען "טויט שטראף".)
לעניינינו, וואס האט מיר בעיקר געשטערט פון די אלע מעשה'לעך, איז נישט די מציאות אז בני אדם מאכען גרייזען, סוכ"ס זענען מיר דאך נישט קיין מלאכים,
אבער דער עולה לדעתי, איז ווי לאנג דאס נעמט, פון ווען ס'איז דא א ערענסטע מקום חושש זיין אז דער שופט אדער קטיגור האט געמאכט דעם טעות, ביז ווען דער מענטשען גייט במציאות ארויס פון תפיסה.
עכ"פ, איך מיין אז ס'וואלט ווען באדארפען צו זיין עפעס א סיסטעם, אין א מדינה ווי אמעריקה וואס זיכט באמת נישט צו פייניגען מענטשען אומזיסט, אויס צו מיידען אזוינע אומאיינגענעמע געשעהנישען.
פונקטליך ווי אזוי ווייס איך נישט, און אדרבה, זאל דער עולם זאגען זייער מיינונג.
תוקן על ידי - jid_613 - 21/10/2005 3:53:09
 |
|
|
