After over two decades behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Jon-Adrian Velazquez was on Monday exonerated following a motion to vacate his wrongful conviction.
He told NBC News, “For the first time I can breathe.” The proceeding was overseen by New York Supreme Court Justice Abraham Clott, who set aside the guilty verdict against Velazquez in the 1998 murder of a retired New York City police officer based on the consent of prosecutors—the same district attorney’s office that once put him behind bars.
The office’s review of Velazquez’s conviction looked at several factors, including recanted eyewitness testimonies and DNA evidence.
Impressed with the ex-prisoner’s behavior, Judge Clott told the courtroom, “I do want to recognize the extraordinary achievements of Mr. Velazquez throughout the time he was incarcerated and since his release.”
The entire session was over in four minutes.
Despite the accolades, the judge failed to offer Velazquez an apology while addressing him.
Velazquez expressed that he missed years of his sons’ lives and felt helpless when his mother suffered a heart attack in 2018, all while being imprisoned for someone else’s crimes.
Velazquez remarked, “Four minutes after 27 years, no apology.” The judge “talked about celebrating,” he continued, “after that same courtroom destroyed my life. This isn’t a celebration. This is an indictment on the system.”
Known for his part in the 2023 drama “Sing Sing,” Velasquez first got in touch with NBC News producer Dan Slepian in 2002, hoping to prove his innocence while he was behind bars. NBC’s “Dateline” has followed his story over the years, including in a 2012 investigation and the 2023 podcast “Letters from Sing Sing.”
Velazquez served nearly 24 years of a 25-year to life sentence before being released in 2021 when then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo granted him executive clemency, noting his work in New York’s Sing Sing prison on an educational program by those incarcerated to reduce gun violence.
After being cleared on Monday, the 48-year-old joyfully embraced his loved ones. He was outside with his mother, his two sons, and a large group of supporters. He was wearing a baseball cap that said, “End of an error.” He gave one of his boys a forehead kiss, relishing the sensation of being officially cleared and relieved that his identity was no longer confined to a prison.
He expressed, “When we’re taken through the system, they strip you of your identity, they put you in a shower, butt naked, shave all your clothes, hose you down like a slave, and then they give you a number and brand you. And that wasn’t who I was. And I’ve been fighting for 27 years to tell them that my name is Jon-Adrian ‘JJ’ Velasquez.”
When he was arrested for the shooting death of retired police officer Albert Ward at an illicit gambling establishment in Harlem, he was just 22 years old.
Despite being accused of firing the gun, he had an alibi: he said he was in the middle of a 74-minute phone conversation with his mother.
Meanwhile, another man described as one of the two armed robbers pleaded guilty to a single count of second-degree robbery and was released in 2008.
Velasquez’s efforts to get his conviction vacated were in vain over the years, but in 2022, the Manhattan district attorney’s Post-Conviction Justice Unit consented to reopen the case and conduct a thorough investigation. This included testing for DNA on a known betting slip that Ward’s shooter had handled. DNA testing was not available at the time of the incident.
The findings showed that Velazquez’s DNA was not on the crucial evidence. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said it believed the results of the DNA test would have influenced the jury’s verdict.
Since being released from jail, Velazquez has advocated for criminal justice reform using his experiences. He even starred in the 2023 drama “Sing Sing,” which was based on a real Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the prison.
The podcast “Letters from Sing Sing” was a finalist for a 2024 Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting.
Moreover, on November 23 and 24, MSNBC Films will launch “The Sing Sing Chronicles,” a four-part documentary series, on the network.
