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Man Cleared After 25 Years in Jail for Murder He Didn’t Commit
April 28, 2026
Posted 3 hours ago by
NBC 4 New YorkA murder conviction has been thrown out but only after the accused spent 25 years behind bars. Harry Ruiz’s conviction has been vacated after he served a quarter of a century for the Harlem shooting of Emmanuel Felix, as a judge said prosecutors may have withheld evidence. “I feel like I can finally breathe again,” Ruiz said on Monday, according to ABC News.
The 58-year-old was just 25 when he was convicted of second-degree murder for the 1993 shooting and was paroled in 2019. An inquiry opened two years ago after New York City detective Carlos Vasquez became convinced of Ruiz’s innocence, and found payments and housing worth 17,000 to the mom of a 13-year-old girl, who was the only witness. No evidence was found that the payments were disclosed to the defense. Judge Robert Mandelbaum said it was “troubling” that the former assistant district attorney Helen Sturm refused to take part in the reinvestigation. “What do you want me to say? That I feel badly that he was convicted?” Sturm said to ABC. “You don’t get a long sentence like this without evidence,” she said, adding she was confident relevant laws were followed. “Harry Ruiz spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.Read it at ABC NewsRead more at The Daily Beast.
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