In 1987, two innocent teen-agers went to prison for murder. Thirty-seven years later, a juror learned she got it wrong. For several years, Jennifer Gonnerman has been reporting on the case of Eric Smokes and David Warren, two men who were wrongfully convicted in the murder of a French tourist near Times Square when they were just teen-agers. Long after their release from prison, via parole, the men continued fighting to clear their names—a painstaking process full of stops and starts that finally reached its conclusion in January, when both Smokes and Warren were exonerated in a New York City courtroom. Among those in the audience was a retired schoolteacher named Luana Mango Dunn, who had served on the jury that had originally voted to convict the men. In a remarkable new story, Gonnerman follows as Dunn attempts to make amends with Smokes and Warren for her role in the events that forever changed their lives. “Every wrongful conviction that is undone leaves behind a group of individuals who had a role in sending that innocent person to prison and who must now contend with their conscience: the detectives, prosecutors, judge, jurors,” Gonnerman writes. “Apologies are very rare.” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » |
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