Brooklyn Man Who Wrongly Served Nearly 30 Years Expected To Be Freed Today

What: With the help of the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney Office’s Conviction Review Unit, a Brooklyn man, Mark Denny, is expected to be released from a Brooklyn courtroom after wrongly serving nearly 30 years in prison. The results of the Kings County District Attorney’s reinvestigation also led District Attorneys in New York and Chemung County to dismiss separate convictions in those counties that resulted from Denny’s wrongful conviction in Brooklyn.

Who: Mark Denny and his family, Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Innocence Project lawyers Barry Scheck and Nina Morrison

Where:
Kings County Supreme Court
320 Jay Street;
Courtroom of Hon. Matthew D’Emic (Room 1521)
Brooklyn, NY,

The Judge has indicated that cameras will be permitted in the courtroom.

When: Approximately 12:30 PM

Why: Just 17 when he was arrested, Mark Denny was convicted of a December 1987 rape and burglary of that occurred in a Burger King on Fort Hamilton Parkway. After unsuccessful attempts to locate evidence that could be submitted for DNA testing, the Innocence Project brought the case to the attention of the Kings County District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit which thoroughly reinvestigated the case in which four young men were charged with raping and robbing two store clerks at a Burger King after hours. After concluding that that the three other men charged were the sole perpetrators of the crime, but that Denny had no involvement, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office agreed to vacate and dismiss Denny’s conviction on grounds of actual innocence and has joined the Innocence Project in asking to have Denny freed from prison.