John Bunn (exonerated prisoner)

John Bunn is an African American man wrongfully convicted of a murder committed in 1991, when he was 14. Bunn spent over 16 years in prison and nearly 12 on parole and before he was exonerated in 2018.[1] After his release, Bunn founded a nonprofit that aims to educate incarcerated youth and provide access to books to promote literacy.[2]

This article is about the man wrongfully convicted of murder. For the basketball coach, see John Bunn.

Early life

Bunn grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He and his younger sister were raised by his mother.[1]

Murder conviction

On August 14, 1991, two Rikers Island corrections officers were shot in their car during a robbery in the Kingsbourough Housing project; one died. The surviving officer, Robert Crosson, stated that the shooters were two light-skinned black men in their twenties.[3]

Louis N. Scarcella, an NYPD detective later discovered to serially falsify evidence, arrested Bunn and 17-year-old Rosean Hargrave on an anonymous tip the following day, although both boys did not fit the physical descriptions provided by Crosson. Crosson subsequently identified the two as the shooters in a lineup. In November 1992, a jury convicted both of second-degree murder.[3]

Life in prison

Bunn was initially held in a juvenile facility in upstate New York. He did not receive a comprehensive education, and had to teach himself, earning his GED at 17.[1] At 17, he was transferred to Elmira Correctional Facility.

Bunn was paroled in 2006 for good behavior, but still fought to clear his conviction.[4]

Exoneration

In 2013, evidence of extensive misconduct by Detective Scarcella came to light, triggering a number of motions from defendants previously accused by him of crimes for retrial. In April 2015, Justice ShawnDyna Simpson vacated the conviction of Rosean Hargrave, based on the "false and misleading practices" of Scarcella.[3] Judge Simpson similarly vacated Bunn's conviction and ordered a retrial in November 2016, noting that evidence that could have been used to identify perpetrators—namely, the blood on the outside of the police car—had been destroyed by police.[3] After an appeals court upheld Simpson's ruling in April 2018, the prosecution dismissed charges against Bunn in May.[3]

In 2019, Bunn filed a lawsuit against the city of New York and Scarcella for "malicious prosecution, denial of due process and civil rights conspiracy."[5]

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References
  1. King, Alexandra (9 September 2018). "He spent 27 years wrongly convicted of murder. He wants to spend the rest encouraging inmates to read". CNN. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  2. "What We Do". A Voice 4 the Unheard. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  3. "John Bunn". National Registry of Exonerations. 20 May 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  4. Carrega, Christina (15 May 2018). "John Bunn, wrongfully jailed at 14 in the 1991 murder of a correction officer, cries as he's exonerated". NY Daily News. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  5. Fenton, Reuven; Fitz-Gibbon, Jorge (15 August 2019). "Wrongfully convicted man sues NYC, disgraced Detective Louis Scarcella". New York Post. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
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