The Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Unit exonerated its 40th defendant, a murder suspect so desperate to shorten his prison sentence that he pleaded guilty to a lesser crime that he did not commit.
Keith Roberts, 67, spent eight years in prison for murder before accepting a plea deal in 1995 to a lower charge so he could stay at liberty after his original conviction was reversed on appeal.
On the eve of Roberts’ second trial, he pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge, which resulted in a maximum sentence of seven years, which was less than the time he had already served.
The decision kept Roberts from the risk of another trial that could have landed him back in jail.
But a Conviction Review Unit investigation years later determined that Roberts never should have gone to jail in the first place, and that he was the victim of unreliable testimony, overlooked evidence and a rushed investigation.
“Mr. Roberts, like many others, found himself trapped by a system that failed to recognize his innocence, and nearly 20 years ago, he pleaded guilty just to stay out of prison,” said Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez. “Today, we are able to restore his dignity and good name and affirm his innocence.”
The flawed conviction stemmed from a fatal shooting outside an East Flatbush social club in 1986. Cops said a gunman shot Pierre Sanon, 33, after a dispute inside the Holiday Social Club spilled outside.
A witness led cops to a “yellow house” to which Roberts allegedly fled — which, in fact, was where Roberts lived. Roberts told the officers who questioned him that he was at another party that night. However, he agreed to go to a local police precinct and appear in a lineup. The witness — the only one who placed Roberts at the scene — picked him out of the lineup, and Roberts was arrested.
The case was closed just 12 hours after Sanon was killed.
Roberts was later convicted and sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.
An appellate court later ruled that Roberts’ alibi was “plausible,” and that the eyewitness testimony was “exaggerated and incongruent.”
Even though the court overturned his conviction, in the eyes of the law he was still guilty of something. Roberts said he wanted to clear his name. He appealed to the Conviction Review Unit for help.
“I promised my mother before she died that I would continue to fight to establish my innocence and honor her fight and sacrifice to free me and clear my name,” he said in a statement.
Roberts was scheduled to appear in court today to have the sentence vacated.
