Queens DA's Office Reviewing 10 Cases Of Questionable Convictions

QUEENS, NY — The Queens District Attorney's Office is reinvestigating 10 cases that may have resulted in wrongful convictions.

The 10 cases are under review by the office's new conviction integrity unit, which Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz established at the beginning of this year to review questionable convictions, according to a news release.

The reevaluations will include interviewing new witnesses and DNA and forensic testing.

"No one is perfect. No system is without flaws. And we know, without a doubt, that mistakes can happen, resulting in a miscarriage of justice," Katz said. "It is vitally important to have a unit that is dedicated to reviewing credible cases and empowered to make recommendations on anyone who should be exonerated if found to be wrongfully convicted."

The Queens District Attorney's Office is the last of its New York City counterparts to form a unit specifically dedicated to reviewing past cases and exonerating the wrongfully convicted.

Leading the new unit is former Innocence Project senior staff attorney Bryce Benjet, who represented Rodney Reed in a widely-publicized fight to block his execution in Texas amid new evidence casting doubt on his 1998 murder conviction.

In the four months since the office launched its conviction integrity unit, it has received 46 submissions of cases to review. Prosecutors closed six of those cases, though some were referred to other jurisdictions or bureaus.