A Conviction is Reversed After 23-Year Legal Battle

Wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 23 years, Everton Wagstaffe’s convictions were unanimously reversed and indictments dismissed in the fall of 2014. Teaching himself to read while incarcerated, Wagstaffe wrote hundreds of letters pleading for help in pursuit of proving his innocence. Initially with no legal representation, Wagstaffe was granted hearings and advocated on his own behalf, though found no relief within the system, continually returning to prison. Eventually, his persistence won the support of Myron Beldock who represented Wagstaffe for nearly two decades, and who was able to prove that initial “fraud and misrepresentation” of testimony led to the false conviction in the early 1990s.

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New York Times