Andre Brown spent final Christmas Eve blindsided by an appellate court docket reinstating his beforehand overturned tried homicide conviction and probably resuming the second half of a 40-year jail sentence. After a yr of uncertainty, the Bronx father can now have a good time this yr’s vacation season — on Dec. 1, a decide dominated to resentence him to time served, closing the door for any future reimprisonment.
“This yr goes to be a joyful yr of celebration,” mentioned Brown, 48, in a cellphone interview with the AmNews. “It’s going to be one which we bear in mind for a lifetime: the place despair that had withered away and pleasure and nice smiles and laughter [have] reentered into our house. And we’re so wanting ahead to subsequent yr, after we’re in a position to actually look behind and see what we actually completed, as a result of we’re taking this very sluggish every day.”
The choice doesn’t exonerate Brown, who maintains his innocence. He stays responsible on paper for the tried homicide conviction stemming from a 1999 taking pictures. The incident left one teenager paralyzed and one other with lifelong medical problems, “together with a bullet that remained lodged beneath the higher a part of his left arm,” earlier than dying prematurely this previous March at age 44.
Again in 2022, a decide freed Brown from jail after serving 23 years on account of an ineffective help declare. His earlier lawyer didn’t make use of probably game-changing medical proof of Brown’s personal gunshot wound within the leg, which might problem whether or not he might run the way in which the perpetrator did from witness testimony.
However prosecutors from the Bronx District Legal professional’s Workplace efficiently pushed to reinstate the conviction final winter. They argued the earlier lawyer’s determination to not introduce his limp was strategic, not sloppy, to guard his shopper from highlighting his previous drug dealing, which led to his harm. Brown paints a unique story, saying the incident served as a wakeup name for him to show his life round.
“I began off as a hustler, after which I modified my mindset and understood as a result of I had gotten a extreme life-threatening harm that might have killed me,” mentioned Brown. “I received shot inside my leg, after which I instantly modified my thoughts and mentioned I might by no means be a avenue individual once more, and I began going to school. So it begins with a mindset, and that mindset transmuted with me into the [carceral] system, and I continued to develop and hone these expertise and collect extra academic instruments to saturate myself.”
He deliberate on surrendering himself this previous spring to presumably serve out the roughly 17 years remaining on his sentence. On the time, New York state prisons confronted a disaster following the homicide of Robert Brooks and a statewide corrections officer strike. He obtained a keep only a day earlier than he deliberate on turning himself in, however remained in limbo till this month.
Alongside together with his innocence declare, Brown drew help due to his repute as a mannequin returning citizen. His proponents questioned what function practically one other twenty years in jail would serve for a person who helps at-risk youth and has established a GED program since coming house. Moreover, they opposed ripping Brown away from his spouse Tameka, son AJ, and his stepdaughter Trinity.
All year long, organizations starting from the Innocence Undertaking to the NAACP New York State Convention beckoned Gov. Kathy Hochul to grant him clemency to stop reimprisonment. She didn’t log out.
In October, a decide agreed to resentencing. The Bronx District Legal professional’s Workplace didn’t oppose regardless of standing by the conviction. Nevertheless, the decide’s determination nonetheless hung within the steadiness. Brown might technically face the identical sentence or perhaps a longer one. Finally, these anxieties have been for nought. The decide resentenced Brown to 2 concurrent 20-year sentences, halving his authentic two consecutive sentences totaling 40 years. His 23 years in jail counted as full time-served.
“Lastly, the D.A agreed with our place, which was that the 23 years that Andre had served have been a adequate punishment for the crime,” mentioned Brown’s lead counsel Oscar Michelen. “The sentence Andre would obtain if the crime occurred in 2025 would by no means be 40 years with out parole. We now know these draconian [and] harsh sentences don’t scale back recidivism [and] help something that society is interested by.”
“And it could serve no function societally for Andre to return to jail. He had performed all of the rehabilitation he might have presumably performed: he had taken courses, certificates, and so on.”
Michelen and Brown’s different lawyer Jeffrey Deskovic boasts a embellished resume for efficiently combating wrongful convictions and say they are going to proceed engaged on proving his innocence after taking his case pro-bono years in the past. No matter guilt, there’s an especially tight window for what sentences will be reviewed and shortened. “I’m blessed, closely, extremely favored, as a result of what Oscar Michelin [and] Jeffrey Deskovich pulled off,” mentioned Brown. “It’s 1%. I’m the 1% percentile.” However does he must be?
In New York, judges can solely resentence instances if the unique punishment was unlawful or illegal, and leaves little recourse for many to face the overly harsh sentences exceptional in different “industrialized” nations outdoors the USA. Mockingly, Brown wouldn’t have had the identical avenue if he had sufficient authorized illustration. There isn’t any “curiosity of justice” provision, which permits judges to make use of their discretion to make sure honest outcomes.
The direct product is mass incarceration, with Black and Brown males bearing the brunt of those sentencing practices. CUNY Regulation Prof. Steve Zeidman says Brown’s case exemplifies the nationwide Second Look motion to open the door for reviewing intensive sentences as a felony justice reform.
“A case like Andre Brown’s exhibits twenty years [is] sufficient punishment,” mentioned Zeidman. “It’s particularly sufficient punishment if somebody has performed all the pieces they’ll [while] inside, in Andre’s case, the three years he was out, to indicate that they’re a unique individual, not solely they’re not a menace to public security, however they’ve a lot to supply their household and their neighborhood on the surface.”
A Second Look Act invoice at the moment exists right here in New York. If handed into regulation, the laws would enable incarcerated people serving prolonged sentences to use for a sentence discount beneath an “curiosity of justice” provision. A number of notable supporters embody Chief Choose Rowan Wilson and mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a present co-sponsor for the Meeting’s model of the invoice. However there stays work to do within the state legislature.
“Incarcerated New Yorkers want actual pathways for rejoining their households, repairing hurt, therapeutic, and contributing to society –– and the Second Look Act would offer exactly such alternatives,” mentioned State Senate lead sponsor Julia Salazar in an announcement. “The invoice is a counterweight to overly harsh sentences, giving incarcerated New Yorkers hope for launch, whereas granting judges discretion to find out readiness for reentry.”
Lead Meeting sponsor Latrice Walker is a staunch proponent of Brown and confirmed up for his resentencing. Over a written assertion, the Brooklyn-based lawmaker hoped individuals would take time this vacation season to consider the greater than 32,000 individuals in New York state prisons and believed it was time “for a re-evaluation.” She additionally recounted the efforts working behind the scenes to draft letters of help and meet with key officers on behalf of Brown.
“That is the right Christmas present for him, for his spouse and their children,” mentioned Walker. “It’s a victory for justice, though a delayed victory. Mr. Brown’s case underscores how essential it’s for us to struggle for felony justice reform in New York State. I’ve been in contact with the Governor’s workplace about his clemency utility, as he fights to show his innocence as soon as and for all.”
“Now we have to maintain up the struggle till there are not any extra Andre Browns in our jail system.”
Whereas extreme sentencing appears tied to the Crime Invoice-era of many years previous, Zeidman believes the issue persists. He nonetheless frequently sees younger Black and Brown individuals in court docket dealing with “astronomical” sentences. “It’s nonetheless taking place,” mentioned Zeidman. “All of the Second Look Act does is say you’re not destined to perish in jail.”
