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Resource ID: #28527
Subject: Criminal Justice System
Source: Newsday
Affiliation: 
Date: 2019-12-31

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Description

Newsday's multi-media investigation An Innocent Man? was the first to reveal widespread wrongdoing by Suffolk law-enforcement authorities in the 1975 Keith Bush murder conviction, one of the longest-running innocent man cases in U.S. history. In a year-long investigation, Newsday reporter Thomas Maier detailed: how police allegedly beat a false confession out of then-17-year-old Bush for the 1975 sex-related murder of schoolmate Sherese Watson; how forensic experts offered flawed evidence about Bush's guilt and later lost the alleged murder weapon; how the prosecution's main witness against Bush later recanted and said she made up all of her testimony; how DNA evidence pointing to Bush's innocence was rejected; and, mostly significantly, how Bush's trial prosecutor covered-up evidence of another potential suspect, John W. Jones Jr., who placed himself at the murder scene. That evidence about Jones remained a secret and Bush was convicted and sent to prison for 33 years. Newsday's investigation began in June 2018 and the resulting 15,000-word print report and an accompanying documentary were published together in May 2019. Shortly afterward, a report by the current Suffolk County district attorney concluded that Bush had been wrongly convicted and a judge vacated his sentence - 44 years later. Several follow-ups by Newsday detailed reaction to the Bush case and were reflected in an updated documentary, written by Maier and edited by Newsday owner Patrick Dolan, which was posted on December 31, 2019. Maier's painstaking work - which involved dozens of interviews and thousands of pages of legal documents - shed light on a tragic incident in the past and helped result in other similar cases receiving a thorough investigation.

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