Richard Rosario has served 15 years in prison for a 1996 Bronx homicide that occurred when he was more that a thousand miles away in Florida - an alibi confirmed by 13 witnesses. Despite the overwhelming evidence of his innocence, his post-conviction motions were denied largely on procedural grounds. At the request of Richard and his attorneys at Morrison & Foerster and the NAACP LDF, EXI is reinvestigating his case and preparing to return to court to see that justice is finally done.

In furtherance of our investigation, EXI has filed two lawsuits against the NYPD to compel it to turn over police records which may exonerate Rosario.

On March 15, 2013, EXI prevailed in our first lawsuit against the NYPD. The court found that the records we requested "may have information that helps Rosario as he attempts to prove his innocence," and ordered the NYPD to disclose them to us. Instead of turning the records over, the NYPD has appealed the court's decision.

Read the Court's Decision in EXI v. NYPD

Read more about EXI v. NYPD (2) in Thompson Reuters

Read what the NY Times had to say about Richard's case

On July 25, 2012, EXI was awarded a $199,170 grant from the United States Department of Justice to aid us in our mission of exonerating innocent prisoners in New York State whose cases lack DNA evidence. The grant is funded by the DOJ's Wrongful Conviction Review Program which was created to provide high quality and efficient representation for potentially wrongfully convicted defendants in post-conviction claims of innocence, particularly those that challenge eyewitness identifications, confessions, and forensic evidence.

Read More in the New York Law Journal

EXI is investigating the case of Rafael Jiminez, who has spent 18 years in prison for a 1992 Bronx murder that we believe he did not commit. Rafael, a New York born Puerto Rican, was 17 years old at the time of the crime. Both eyewitnesses - who were also Puerto Rican - told police that the shooter was a 24 to 26 year old Dominican man who spoke with a recognizable Dominican accent. Rafael did not match other aspects of the killer's physical appearance that they described, either. The only witness to identify him in a lineup prior to trial viewed a "wanted" poster featuring his photo shortly before making the identification.

Cory Epps was convicted of a 1997 Buffalo murder that was supposed to have stemmed from a road rage dispute. Based on the description provided by the only eyewitness, police created a composite of the killer's appearance, which resembled Cory. Cory was identified after he volunteered to stand in a lineup that he believed would exonerate him. Foreshadowing what we now know about eyewitness identification, the trial judge expressed strong doubts about the reliability of the uncorroborated identification testimony when sentencing Cory. EXI is currently investigating evidence that originally surfaced before Cory's conviction was final - evidence which points to the real killer.

EXI is proud to announce that we recently received a $100,000 grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. We have also received a $10,000 donation from the Vital Projects Fund. Most not-for-profits are struggling and many are folding, but our resilience and successes have certainly paid off. We are extremely enthusiastic about our organization's future, and see an opportunity to acquire additional funding needed to process our growing caseload and sustain our mission of exonerating the actually innocent.

Exoneration Initiative client Devon Ayers was released from prison on January 23, 2013, after serving more than 17 years behind bars for two 1995 Bronx homicides he did not commit: the murder of a Federal Express executive in her apartment, and the felony murder of a livery driver in his cab two days later and four blocks away. There was no physical evidence tying the murders to Ayers or to one another - they were connected only by the prosecution's witnesses who claimed that Ayers and his codefendants committed both. Ayers was exonerated of the livery driver's murder in December, based on reliable confessions from the true killers which proved that that the prosecution's only witnesses on both murders were wrong. On January 23, prosecutors finally conceded that Ayers' conviction for the second murder must also fall.

Ayers' release came three months after EXI, in conjunction with attorneys from the Legal Aid Society, filed a motion to exonerate him of both murders. He is thrilled to be reunited with his family, including his 18 year old daughter who was only 4 months old when he went to jail. Had he not been exonerated, Ayers would have had to serve 50 years to life in prison.

Ayers was released with the understanding that the Bronx District Attorney's Office would be given 90 days to decide whether it had any credible evidence to justify re-trying him and his codefendants. But on the 90th day, the Bronx District Attorney's Office announced for the first time its intention to attempt biological testing on evidence recovered in the Federal Express executive's murder. This testing had been requested by Ayers and his codefendants numerous times over the past decade, but the Bronx District Attorney's Office previously opposed these requests, claiming that the evidence was not relevant. It now insists that the charges against Ayers and his codefendants cannot be officially dropped until the testing is completed, further delaying justice for these innocent men and preventing them from moving on with their lives.


ABC Eyewitness News Reports on Ayers' Release

Read More in The New York Times

On June 20, 2012, the Appellate Division, Second Department reversed Derrick Deacon's 1990 conviction for a Brooklyn murder and ordered a new trial based on newly discovered evidence of innocence: two federal cooperators who were insider gang members knew the real killers, who confessed to them. An eyewitness to the crime also recanted her trial testimony.

EXI investigated the case and filed a motion to vacate the conviction. Attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, led by Roberto Finzi, conducted the post-conviction hearing and after the motion was denied, successfully argued the appeal in the Second Department. EXI filed an amicus brief in support of Deacons appeal and in an effort to advance doctrinal law in the Second Department - namely, that fairness requires state courts to take a comprehensive, integrated view of the evidence when considering post-conviction newly discovered evidence claims, especially in non-DNA innocence cases.

It is extremely rare that an appellate court will make credibility findings that conflict with the lower court as the Appellate Division did in this case. After finding that the hearing witnesses' testimony was "credible and compelling," the Court held that "the likely cumulative effect of the newly discovered evidence and the recantation testimony established a reasonable probability that the result of a new trial would be a verdict more favorable to the defendant."

Read the Decision

Read More in The New York Times

Read More in The New York Law Journal

The Kings County District Attorney's Office appealed the decision to the New York State Court of Appeals, but EXI successfully moved to dismiss that appeal.

The Kings County District Attorney's Office has now announced its decision to re-try Deacon after 24 years. EXI will be representing Deacon at his retrial, which is currently scheduled for the end of May, 2013.