CBS News Highlights Brooklyn Exonerees Shabaka Shakur and Derrick Hamilton
02.01.17 By Innocence Staff
Derrick Hamilton (left) and Shabaka Shakur (right) at the Innocence Project's Young Professional Committee's fall event in November 2016. (Image: mattedesign).
A few months ago, Shabaka Shakur and Derrick Hamilton embarked on a joint venture—ownership of a new restaurant located in downtown Brooklyn. But before they became business partners, they were allies of a different type. Both men were wrongfully convicted of crimes which they didn’t commit and, combined, spent nearly 60 years in prison. In a segment which aired this morning, CBS News reported on Shakur’s and Hamilton’s story, and what their lives have looked like since being exonerated and regaining their freedom.
The men met in prison in central New York, where they were both serving sentences for murders they didn’t commit. Shakur was convicted of a double homicide in 1989; Hamilton was convicted of murder in 1991.
Before both of the men were exonerated in 2015, they spent many hours together in prison, learning and researching the law with the hope of being able to prove their innocence. It was during that time that Shakur and Hamilton learned that there was a central figure to both of their wrongful convictions: former New York City Detective Louis Scarcella. Over the past several years, nearly a dozen cases on which Scarcella was the detective have been overturned based on evidence of his mishandling of evidence and witnesses.
Derrick Hamilton. Photo: mattedesign
Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Innocence Project said that Shakur and Hamilton are free in big part because of the legal work they did on their own cases. “The odds [of proving a wrongful conviction] are enormous, and it takes remarkable resilience, intellect and character to succeed and that’s who these guys are,” Scheck said to CBS News.
When asked about the best part of his new life since being exonerated, Shakur said, “Just living free.”
Shabaka Shakur at New York City Hall. Photo: Sameer Andel-Khalek.
In addition to running their new restaurant, Shakur and Hamilton also offer guidance and their legal knowhow to other individuals who are trying to expose their wrongful convictions.
Watch the full CBS News segment here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/derrick-hamilton-shabaka-shakur-wrongfully-convicted-imprisoned-restaurant-brownstone/
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April 14, 2020 at 2:41 pm
October 14, 2017 at 11:03 am
My son is currently serving time right now and was wrongly convicted and we need help. We live in. Newburgh New York I don’t Know of a Innocence Project here.What can we do.
I have been wrongfully convicted following a guilty plea for attempted robbery for the past 20 years. The main question that would come to mind is “ how is a person wrongfully convicted by pleading guilty “? Answer; ineffectiveness of trial counsel, coerce and prosecuted twice under the same indictment as I was a minor at the time and ignorant of the law. Just like Mr. Shakur and Mr. Hamilton, I have studied and done all the legal research that will reveal and show all my allegations. Also, I have all the evidence connected to the case.