Released From Prison 22 Years After False Conviction

Two Brooklyn, NY men, Antonio Yarbough and Sharrif Wilson, were released from prison this past week after 22 years after exonerating DNA was found.

The two men were convicted of the 1992 murder of Yarbough’s mother, his 12 year old sister, and a cousin.

“It was a nightmare,” Yarbough told CNN. “Twenty-one years and seven months was more like 42 years and seven months, when you know you’re in prison for something you didn’t do.”

The convictions were overturned after “prosecutors said newly discovered evidence created ‘substantial reasonable doubt of the defendants’ guilt,'” the assistant District Attorney said, using an extremely liberal definition of the words “newly discovered.” In 2005 Wilson admitted that he had falsely confessed and implicated Yarbough in the crimes. The District Attorney began reviewing the case five years later. Testing last year connected DNA found under Yarbough’s mother’s fingernails to another murder in 1999, which the duo could not have committed because of their rock solid “rotting away in prison for a crime we didn’t commit at the time” alibi.

So why would Wilson have confessed to something he didn’t do in the first place?

“I was scared, afraid; I was lied to, manipulated into believing that I was going to go home, if I do tell … what they said happened.” Wilson said.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.