New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University - Fall 2023

FALL 2023

NJIP Client Exonerated After 29 Years Behind Bars

Hudson County Judge Vacates Conviction of NJIP Client

A Queens, New York judge vacated the conviction of Armond McCloud, 49, who was forced in 1994 to falsely confess to the shooting murder of Kei Sunada, a young Japanese immigrant. Mr. McCloud was incarcerated from August 8, 1994 until his release on parole on January 31, 2023. His exoneration was vacated on August 24, 2023.

“It feels great to have my innocence finally recognized after 29 years,” Mr. McCloud said.

He is represented by Rutgers Law School Professor Laura Cohen, Director of the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University; Professor Steven Drizin, Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern-Pritzker Law School; and Laura Nirider, former co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and now a wrongful conviction attorney in private practice.

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Professor Laura Cohen, NJIP Director

A Hudson County man, who served 20 years for a crime he did not commit, has been exonerated with the help of NJIP. Dion Miller, now age 54, was released from prison on July 27. He was represented by NJIP Director, Professor Laura Cohen, and Managing Attorney, Nyssa Taylor. Mr. Miller was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Romeo Cavero in 2007 and sentenced to a term of 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mr. Miller’s conviction was based entirely on three false confessions that detectives obtained after subjecting him to 17 hours of grueling and coercive interrogation. Those statements were inconsistent with each other and inconsistent with the other evidence in the case, and bore many of the known hallmarks of false confessions. Mr. Miller steadfastly pursued every available legal avenue to establish his innocence over two decades, often without the benefit of legal representation.

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Several former Clinic students who worked on the case include (left to right) Madeline Gayle ‘21, Anna Giblin ‘23, Prof. Laura Cohen, Armond McCloud, Attorney Laura Nirider, Werdeh Hassan, Drew Bjorklund (Northwestern), and Jalen Porter ‘22.

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Barriers to Innocence Symposium • Emerging Issues in Wrongful Conviction • Pursuing Innocence Adnan Syed, whose case was featured on the "Serial" podcast, surprised participants by calling in to discuss the latest developments in his legal labyrinth.

Left to right: Professor Laura Cohen, NJIP Director; Erica Suter, Attorney for Adnan Syed; Professor Laura Nirider, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Practitioners, academics, students, and people with lived experience in the system found the program challenging, inspiring, informative and deeply moving. Articles by several of the speakers will be published in an upcoming symposium issue of the “Rutgers University Law Review.”

On March 31, NJIP hosted “Barriers to Innocence: Identifying, Investigating, and Undoing Wrongful Convictions,” a full-day symposium featuring experts on wrongful conviction, legal scholars, and exonerees from around the country. Co-sponsored by the “Rutgers Law Review” and the Center on Criminal Justice, Youth Rights, and Race, the conference explored a wide range of issues, including: • Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction: The Adnan Syed Case • Youth, Race, and Wrongful Conviction • Wrongful Convictions, Racial Injustice, and Economic Inequity • Conviction Review Units

Scan to view the photo gallery or visit go.rutgers.edu/BarrierstoInnocence

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NJIP Charges Ahead The New Jersey Innocence Project (NJIP) at Rutgers University advocates for the exoneration, release, and restoration to society of innocent people incarcerated in New Jersey.

Officially launched in 2022 under the aegis of the Rutgers Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic, the NJIP represents factually innocent people in New Jersey in their efforts to vacate their wrongful convictions and obtain their freedom from incarceration. It is the first New Jersey affiliate of the National Innocence Network.

Since opening its doors in 2022, the Project’s small but dedicated team accomplished much, including: Grant Funding NJIP has received its first federal grant, a prestigious award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). One of only 16 grants made nationally through BJA's competitive "Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions" program, the funding will make it possible for NJIP to hire two additional staff members: a staff attorney and a paralegal/investigator. The grant also will enable NJIP to gather and analyze data to (1) measure success of the project; and (2) identify the causes of and promote policy reforms to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions in New Jersey and improve the overall administration of justice in the state. According to NJIP Director Laura Cohen, "This transformative support will allow us to build on our early success and provide crucial representation to more innocent incarcerated New Jerseyans. We are grateful to BJA for its vote of confidence in the project."

Upgraded Status within the Innocence Network NJIP has been promoted from provisional to full membership within the national Innocence Network.

Being a full member allows NJIP to benefit from the Network’s significant resources, including crucial connections with innocence practitioners around the country, training opportunities, guidance from Network staff, and other support.

Intake Roll-Out Managing Attorney Nyssa Taylor established a multistage intake process to evaluate, categorize, and prioritize the more than 200 applications that have streamed into the office since the Project’s launch. The first stage is a simple application to determine eligibility.

In the second stage, applicants submit a detailed questionnaire with information about their case, previously filed briefs, judicial opinions, and discovery.

In stage three, NJIP conducts a rigorous investigation into the person’s innocence claim by gathering and reviewing court documents, defense files, transcripts, and other resources. At the conclusion of this intensive process, NJIP determines whether to take the applicant on as a client.

Growing the Team This summer, NJIP benefited from having two Rutgers Law student interns assisting with investigation, case review, and representation. The office is currently in the process of hiring part-time staff to assist with intake and case management, and has begun training volunteer attorneys from local law firms and a corporate legal department, who will assist in case analysis.

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CLIENT EXONERATED Continued from page 1

His conviction was vacated at the joint request of his legal team and the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, whose Conviction Integrity Unit reinvestigated the case and concluded that newly discovered evidence compelled dismissal of the case against him. Also supporting Mr. McCloud’s claim of innocence is a new crime scene reconstruction report prepared by Professor Kevin Parmalee of the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

In addition, six former Rutgers Law School students in Professor Cohen’s Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic worked on the case over the past three years.

The conviction was based solely on a false confession Mr. McCloud gave after being questioned for 13 hours by a team of NYPD detectives, including the lead interrogator Detective Carlos Gonzalez. During the allnight interrogation, during which he was held incommunicado, Mr. McCloud was falsely told that his mother’s safety would be in jeopardy unless he told police that he killed Mr. Sunada, who was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in the fourth-floor stairwell of a building in LeFrak City, a Queens apartment complex. Police also engaged in other coercive, deceptive and threatening tactics. Eventually, Mr. McCloud signed a short statement falsely admitting his involvement in the crime and, subsequently, was subjected to video questioning by an assistant district attorney. This “confession” was the sole evidence that led to his conviction for first-degree homicide and sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

This is the third false confession cased linked to Detective Gonzalez. Since Mr. McCloud’s conviction, Detective Gonzalez has become notorious for obtaining the false confessions of at least two of the nowexonerated defendants in 1989’s Central Park Five case, Kevin Richardson and Antron McCray.

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Armond McCloud leaving the court building after a judge vacated his conviction in August 2023.

Armond McCloud enjoying the Rutgers football season opener against Northwestern University at SHI Stadium in Piscataway on September 3, 2023.

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CLIENT EXONERATED

JUDGE VACATES CONVICTION

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He also obtained the false confession of now-exonerated Johnny Hincapie, who was wrongfully convicted of the 1990 murder of Brian Watkins in the so-called Utah Tourist case.

Earlier this year, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit launched an extensive reinvestigation of the case and concluded that Mr. Miller was innocent of the crime.

Yusef Salaam, candidate for New York City Council and one of the accused men in the Central Park Five case, said, “I’m both glad and saddened that yet another case has been uncovered in which the NYPD forced multiple innocent young Black men to falsely confess to a crime they didn’t commit. It’s past time to make sure this never happens again.”

The Unit joined in the NJIP’s motion for a new trial, which Hudson County Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez granted. The Attorney General’s Office then moved for a dismissal of the indictment with prejudice. Mr. Miller’s exoneration is the second sought by the Unit since its formation in 2019.

Professor Drizin added, “Most homicide detectives go their entire careers without obtaining a false confession.

It appears that Detective Gonzalez has participated in obtaining at least five false confessions that we know of in three different cases. If the Brooklyn DA’s audit of disgraced former Brooklyn Detective Scarcella is any indication, then there are likely more false confessions to be uncovered.”

Dion Miller

Professor Drizin and Ms. Nirider are well known for their expertise in police interrogations and false confessions, including their representation of Wisconsin man Brendan Dassey, whose wrongful conviction was profiled in the hit Netflix series, “Making a Murderer.”

“Mr. Miller, his family, and the New Jersey Innocence

Professor Cohen, who co-founded the New Jersey Innocence Project and directs the Rutgers Law School Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic, is a national youth justice expert who has been involved in numerous exonerations and other successful post-conviction relief efforts on behalf of wrongfully convicted young people.

and for their determination to correct this grave

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Project at Rutgers University are deeply grateful to Attorney General Platkin, Director Murray, and the entire team of the Conviction Review Unit for their vigorous, thorough, and thoughtful work on this case, injustice,” said Professor Cohen. “We hope that the lessons learned from this matter, particularly with regard to the causes and frequency of false confessions, will lead to exonerations of other innocent people and help prevent future wrongful convictions in New Jersey.”

Scan to watch the press conference or visit go.rutgers.edu/PressConference

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NJIP Welcomes Managing Attorney Nyssa Taylor Looking Ahead Taylor has hit the ground running since her arrival in September 2022, immediately establishing an intake system so she could begin accepting applications from incarcerated people. She has also set some ambitious goals for the future of the program.

Nyssa Taylor, NJIP Managing Attorney

NJIP welcomed its first managing attorney, Nyssa Taylor, in September 2022. During her brief tenure, Taylor already has created NJIP's essential infrastructure and established herself as a powerful advocate for innocent people in New Jersey.

A Tradition of Justice After graduating from Temple University Beasley School of Law, Taylor began her legal career at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she worked in major trials and appeals for over a decade. She then moved on to work as the Title IX manager for Rowan University, before landing at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU-PA), where her goal was to reduce incarceration in the state as the criminal justice strategic litigation and policy counsel.

“The work we were doing at the ACLU was very important, but I missed criminal defense work and working with students,” she says. “Transitioning to NJIP seemed like a great opportunity to get back to both.”

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First, she plans to expand NJIP’s client-serving capacity.

Though she is assisted by interns, and law students enrolled in the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic also work on a small number of matters, Taylor is currently the Project’s only fulltime staff person. “We are in the process of adding more staff in the future so we can take on more cases,” she says.

Second, Taylor hopes to raise awareness of the causes and systemic issues behind wrongful convictions, and make sure that stakeholders in New Jersey are doing everything they can to prevent them from occurring in the future.

Taylor’s strategy for achieving these goals begins with increasing the Project’s operating budget. “It is incredibly difficult to unravel a conviction, and the process can take many years, significant resources, and a lot of work,” she says. “It is my hope to expand the Project so that we can have more resources at our disposal to do this important work for the many individuals currently incarcerated in our state who need help.”

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The NJ Innocence Project at Rutgers University received a 2023 Rutgers University-Camden Chancellor’s Award for Diversity, Inclusion, and Civic Engagement for fostering understanding, building relationships across differences, and offering new ways to promote equity and diversity.

NJ Innocence Project Funders NJIP is extraordinarily grateful to the following funders, whose generous gifts, donor-advised recommendations, and pledges in support of the Project make it possible for us to do our work:

Alan (RLAW ’79) and Deborah Cohen Office of Rutgers University-Camden Chancellor Antonio D. Tillis Hon. Stephen Orlofsky (ret.), in memory of Charlotte K. Gaal Louis Serterides Fund Private family foundation Rutgers College of Arts and Sciences - Camden Rutgers Law School U.S. Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Assistance

Make a donation at go.rutgers.edu/NJIPGive

NJ Innocence Project at Rutgers University

Engaging the Legal Community NJIP deeply appreciates offers of assistance from lawyers, law students, social work students, undergraduates, exonerees, and many others.

Managing Attorney Nyssa Taylor is especially grateful to the prospective volunteers for their patience as NJIP has been developing and testing its systems and protocols. Partnerships with Chubb’s New Jersey Legal Department, Lowenstein Sandler, and McCarter & English are now in place. Volunteer attorneys from both entities have been trained and are assisting with review of nearly 200 requests for assistance NJIP

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Nyssa Taylor

Prof. Laura Cohen

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has received from potential clients.

NJIP Co-Founders Mariel Delacruz, Jill Friedman, and Laura Cohen at the 2022 Innocence Network Conference.

Co-founders not pictured: Sara Beth Plummer, Jane Siegel, Nakea Barksdale, and Kimberlee Moran