Convicted of murder despite out-of-state vacation alibi, man is freed on DA's motion after 20 years
A New York City man was freed from prison Wednesday, at the request of the Bronx district attorney’s office, after serving 20 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit.
The DA’s office agreed to a new trial for Richard Rosario, who identified more than a dozen alibi witnesses to support his claim that he was in Florida on vacation at the time of 1996 slaying of George Collazo, according to the Associated Press. However, the government is not, at least for now, dismissing the case entirely.
Now 40, Rosario was arrested after witnesses picked him out of a police photo book. Despite a lack of forensic evidence tying him to the crime and testimony by his Florida hosts that he was there on vacation when Collazo was killed, he was convicted, an earlier Associated Press story recounts.
Neither police nor his court-appointed defense lawyers talked to most of the alibi witnesses he listed. A judge OK’d a request for funding by his initial attorney to send a private investigator to Florida, but she never did so, a 2010 appellate decision noted. Subsequent defense counsel mistakenly thought funding for the PI had not been approved.
Although his conviction was upheld on appeal, the DA’s office agreed it should be reversed.
“We will continue to investigate the murder of George Collazo, who was 16 years old when he was shot and killed, so that his family might have closure,” said DA Darcel Clark, who took office only a couple of months ago, in a Wednesday written statement. “The charges against Mr. Rosario will remain open while we complete the alibi witnesses’ interviews and reinvestigate the case in order to decide whether to retry Mr. Rosario.”
Attorney Glenn Garber of the Exoneration Initiative is one of Rosario’s lawyers.
“It really is a case study in a wrongful conviction,” Garber said. “But he hung in there … and finally he’s getting some level of justice.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Did Lawyers Fail Convicted Murderer? Cert Weighed in Case of Nine Alibi Witnesses”
NBC New York: “Bronx Man Jailed for 18 Years Despite 13 Alibi Witnesses”
New York Daily News: “New York’s first black female district attorney, Darcel Clark, takes office in the Bronx”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Despite out-of-state vacation alibi, man spent nearly 25 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit”
ABAJournal.com: “DA’s office disavows 19th conviction in ongoing probe of old convictions; ex-inmate served 25 years”
