Brooklyn man whose murder conviction was vacated after serving 21 years in prison plans to sue for $100 million
Derrick Hamilton, 49, filed the notice of claim Tuesday, seeking the nine-figure payment for spending more than two decades behind bars.
BY OREN YANIV
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 4:30 PM
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JESSE WARD/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSDerrick Hamilton, 49, had his murder conviction exonerated after spending 21 years in prison.
The latest wrongfully convicted man to be exonerated by Brooklyn prosecutors announced his intent to sue the city, the NYPD and the tainted detective who framed him for $100 million, records show.
Derrick Hamilton, 49, filed the notice of claim Tuesday, less than two weeks after his murder conviction was officially vacated.
“We look forward for the city to do the right thing for the 21 years I’ve spent in prison for something I didn’t do,” he told the Daily News Wednesday.
He claims retired detective Louis Scarcella lied and threatened a witness to bring him down for the 1991 slaying of Nathaniel Cash in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Despite recantations and alibi witnesses who were never got a chance to testify, when District Attorney Kenneth Thompson threw out the conviction, he cited ballistics evidence that didn’t match testimony from the sole eyewitness in the case.
That evidence “was available from day one,” noted Hamilton, the 11th convict to be cleared by the DA’s office as part of an unprecedented review of old convictions. “There was nothing new that they relied on.”
City Controller Scott Stringer had already reached settlements before lawsuits were filed in four cases so far, compensating three half brothers and another man cleared in murders that were handled by Scarcella for a total payout of $23.4 million.
His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
JESSE WARD/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSHamilton plans to sue the city, the NYPD and a disgraced detective involved in the case for $100 million, the Daily News has learned.
Stringer had told the New York Times he’s committed to help the wrongfully convicted and added he’s “very concerned about the impact these cases will have on the fiscal health of the city.”
Hamilton said he hopes the process “will not be a long, drawn-out battle like the 24 years I’ve spent to get justice.”
The father of a 2-year-old daughter, has been fighting to clear his name before and after getting paroled in 2011.
He suffered “severe mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation, indignities, embarrassment, degradation and injury to reputation as well as physical injuries to his person while incarcerated,” according to the notice of claim.
A year ago, an appellate court hearing his case set a new, less stringent standard for bringing innocence claims - a decision that has since been cited repeatedly by inmates who try to reverse their convictions.
Hamilton’s lawyer, Jonathan Edelstein — who argued that appeal — said he hopes the ruling “provides a way for other people who are innocent to prove that.”
