Brooklyn prosecutors will ask a judge next week to toss the conviction of a man who spent 20 years behind bars for murder after he was arrested by a discredited detective whose career is under scrutiny, sources told The Post on Friday.
Derrick Hamilton, 49, was convicted of a 1991 killing based on testimony by the victim’s girlfriend. But she recanted before he was sentenced, claiming she testified falsely because police threatened to take away her kids, court papers state.
Former detective Louis Scarcella insisted that she only tried to recant because she was scared of Hamilton — so the alleged killer was kept locked up until he was paroled in 2011, according to court papers.
Multiple alibi witnesses also came forward after Hamilton’s trial to say he was in Connecticut during the Bedford-Stuyvesant murder.
Scarcella, 63, currently has over 70 of his decades-old homicide cases under review by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and five murder convictions based on his questionable investigations have been tossed out.
“It’s been 25 years of fighting,” Hamilton told the Post, noting that he missed his children’s graduations and other important moments while he was behind bars.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for me because they’re going to vindicate me, but it’s bittersweet because I can’t get back the years I spent away.”
Law-enforcement sources said DA Ken Thompson’s office will ask a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge to overturn Hamilton’s conviction next week before his Friday court date.
“The Conviction Review Unit reviewed the case and concluded that he was wrongfully convicted of this crime,” said a law-enforcement source, adding that it’s important to toss Hamilton’s wrongful conviction despite his criminal past and unrelated manslaughter conviction.
“This shows that the Conviction Review Unit does not discriminate. Whether you’re a good guy or a bad guy, they’ll point out that wrongful conviction,” the source said.
A Brooklyn DA spokeswoman declined to comment.
When Scarcella testified in September in the wrongful conviction hearing of another man who alleges Scarcella used improper investigative methods, Hamilton heckled the detective as he walked out of court.
“Scarcella, why you do it? Why you frame us? Why you sending us to jail for something we didn’t do?” yelled Hamilton.
Scarcella has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
While he was in prison Hamilton became a respected jailhouse lawyer who helped other convicts with their appeals – and since his release he is a fixture in Brooklyn courthouses where he sits in on homicide trials and gives advice to defendants and their families.
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