They got the wrong guys. Two Brooklyn men, Anthony Faison and Charles Shepherd, were released from custody on Monday after they spent 14 years in prison for the 1987 murder of a livery cab driver named Jean Ulysses. As in so many other cases here and across the country, the authorities either through sloppiness, ineptitude or worse managed to nail the wrong men, thus ruining their lives and allowing the real killer to roam free. Her story conflicted with what the authorities knew about the case from the beginning, but that didn't matter.
Prosecutors tend to be far more interested in convictions than justice.
The obvious holes in the witness's story were overlooked. Exculpatory evidence was ignored. A judge and a jury accepted the prosecution's version of events, and Mr. Faison and Mr. Shepherd were sent off to state prison. What is hard to believe is that any judge familiar with the behavior of crack addicts and other criminals in New York City could make such a na ve assertion. It's the very willingness of crack addicts and other lowlifes to lie for virtually any consideration that prompts so many prosecutors to recruit them as witnesses when all else has failed.