Kin-Jin (David) Wong - Perjury / False Confession

Wong, Kin-Jin ('David'); murder; NRE: perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant

Suggestibility issues

M19 [340] "Kin-Jin 'David' Wong, an illegal Chinese immigrant from Fujian province by way of Hong Kong, worked in the Chinatown section of New York City in the early 1980s. In 1984, he was convicted in state court of participating in a robbery...Wong has since publicly acknowledged his culpability for that crime. After his robbery conviction, Wong began a journey through the prison system that in 1986 led to Clinton Correctional Facility..."

"At approximately 4 p.m. on March 12, 1986, a cold and snowy afternoon, Wong was outside in the Clinton prison yard when another inmate, an African American later identified as Tyrone Julius, was stabbed to death. At the moment of the stabbing, the yard contained 600 to 700 inmates milling around, preparing to line up and return to their cells. Wong and many, if not most, of the other prisoners were dressed identically in state-issued green clothing. Amidst all this activity, a white corrections officer, Richard LaPierre, manned his post in an eighty-foot-tall [341] observation tower at the edge of the yard, located approximately 120 to 130 yards from the scene of the stabbing. LaPierre claimed that, just prior to the murder, he saw a group of inmates clustered together and watched one inmate, wearing a hood, walk past the group. He then noticed another inmate leave the group, approach Julius from behind, and give him a 'shot' to the lower neck or shoulder. Only at this point -- after Julius had fallen face-first into the snow -- did LaPierre raise his binoculars and attempt to track the assailant's path. While LePierre informed his colleagues by radio that an inmate was down and tried to describe the location, he also made an effort to follow the perpetrator winding his way through the yard: crossing the field and stopping by a fence, turning to face the tower, shaking hands with other prisoners and mixing into the crowd gathered to gawk at the victim. In due course, LaPierre succeeded in contacting another tower and alerting the guard as to the site of the person he believed to have committed the crime.

"Following LaPierre's communication, corrections officers singled out two Asian inmates in the yard, Tse Kin Cheung and David Wong, and one of them -- Wong -- soon became the chief suspect.

"From the start, Wong seemed like an unlikely perpetrator. No weapon or blood was found on Wong's person, even though the type of wound inflicted on Julius would have 'spurted' blood, according to the subsequent testimony of the medical examiner. Furthermore, LaPierre's physical description of the stabber immediately after the incident failed to match that of Wong in several crucial aspects: In the 'Unusual Incident Report' he composed on the day of the murder, LaPierre indicated that the stabber at first 'appeared to be white' and failed to mention the presence of dark gloves, which Wong happened to be wearing when he was detained by [342] another corrections officer in the prison yard. Moreover, LaPierre evidently never cited the presence of a large Chinese newspaper, an item found in Wong's possession at the time he was apprehended.

"[D]uring his testimony, LaPierre contradicted himself with respect to his description of the assailant's hands, commenting at one point that he had white hands and elsewhere that he wore dark gloves.

"Eyewitness testimony from Officer LaPierre proved to be a vital part of the prosecution's case at trial, especially when corroborated by another witness who purportedly enjoyed an even better view of the stabbing: Peter Dellfava, a white inmate at Clinton Correctional Facility, who stated that he was fifteen feet away when the murder occurred.

"Dellfava expressed certainty regarding Wong's identity, alleging that he had seen him many times and talked with him frequently. By the time he testified at trial, Dellfava was no longer incarcerated but, rather, out on parole and living in Medina, New York. Indeed, the Clinton County [DA] had written to the Parole Board on his behalf, resulting in a successful first appearance before the Board; the fact that Dellfava obtained parole at that stage was no small feat, in part because he had a previous record for attempting to escape from prison.

"Entrusted with the task of cross-examining LaPierre and Dellfava, and more generally formulating a defense, were two local lawyers assigned to represent Wong as indigent defense counsel, a duo that neglected to pursue several potentially fruitful investigative leads. Specifically, portions of the Department of Correctional Services' Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) report, completed after the stabbing and disclosed to the defense prior to trial, alluded to the possibility of an alternative perpetrator. The report indicated that Otilio Serrano, a prisoner at Clinton, 'advised that an inmate named Gutierrez was the subject who had stabbed an inmate in the yard' before noting that Serrano recanted his assertion in a second interview. In yet a third interview, Serrano stated that Wong could not have committed the stabbing. In addition, the report contained an excerpt from a conversation with another prisoner, Alexander Winston Sylvester, where Sylvester declared that 'after stabbing the black inmate, the Puerto Rican inmate threw the blade down behind him onto the snow. A second Puerto Rican inmate picked up the blade, put it in a pair of gloves and walked up the hillside to the courts.' Despite the [344] statements, the defense attorneys spoke with neither Serrano nor Sylvester before trial. The lawyers did, however, decide to present an innocence defense -- five inmates (including both Wong and Tse Kin Cheung) testified that Wong did not commit the crime, but these witnesses did not identify the perpetrator.

"In July 1987, an all-white jury convicted Wong of murder in the second degree...[345] Even crediting LaPierre's and Dellfava's testimony...a gaping hole emerges when reflecting on this trial: the lack of any semblance of a motive for the crime. The trial adduced no evidence of a previous altercation between Wong and Julius, nor any festering gang rivalries implicating them. In the end, why would Wong seek to kill Julius, an African American inmate who had only recently arrived at Clinton?

[346] "The...Third Department...rejected Wong's appeal in 1990, concluding that 'the evidence is legally sufficient to support [Wong's] conviction' and noting that 'the contention that his legal representation was ineffective is patently without basis in the record.'"

[And yet, the NRE lists inadequate legal defense. Whether 'in the record' or not, defense attorneys' failure to interview witnesses who spoke of a different person having committed this crime would certainly seem to constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.]

[347] "[I]n December 2000... Dellfava recanted his trial testimony. Most notably, in an affidavit...Dellfava swore that he did not witness the stabbing of Tyrone Julius and that '[t]he first time I ever saw David Wong in person was in court.' As for how he came to testify against Wong, Dellfava asserted that he was friendly with several corrections officers from his prison job as a cook in the staff area and that a sergeant approached him shortly after the stabbing, asking whether '[i]t was an Oriental guy, wasn't it?' Sensing an opportunity to improve his own situation in exchange for cooperating in the Wong prosecution, Dellfava requested a transfer to a facility closer to his family and a recommendatoon for parole, both of which materialized.

[348] "Ultimately, further investigation...pointed to former prisoner Nelson Gutierrez as the perpetrator, reinforcing the hint that Otilio Serrano had provided fifteen years earlier when he stated to BCI officials that an inmate named 'Gutierrez' had stabbed Julius.

[349] "A new, more viable story of the stabbing began to take shape: the incident was retribution for a beating Gutierrez had previously suffered from Julius while at a New York City prison."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"Wong testified in his own defense, but his attorney agreed to a court interpreter who did not speak Wong's dialect, leading to confusing testimony from Wong."

"Following his conviction, Dellfava recanted and other witnesses came forward and identified inmate Nelson Gutiereez, who died in 2000, as the actual killer.

"Based on the recantation, Wong was granted a hearing on the motion for a new trial. During the hearing, two former Clinton Correctional inmates testified that Wong did not fatally stab Tyrone Julius. Dellfava testified, 'I told them (police and the jury) that I'd seen David Wong go up behind someone and hit him. I didn't see any of it.'"

"Asked by Clinton County [DA] Richard Cantwell why he lied, Dellfava said, 'To get the hell out of that prison.'

"The defense also discovered that the prosecution had withheld a letter from the defense in which the prosecution recommended parole be granted to Dellfava.

"The motion for a new trial was denied, but in October 2004, the Appellate Division...overturned Wong's conviction and granted him a new trial. The charges were dismissed in December 2004. Wong was awarded $1,250,000 from the New York Court of Claims. Ultimately, Wong, who had entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager, was transferred to an immigration detention facility and deported to China."

[The above is not the only case in which a correctional officer helped to convict an innocent man; see also Thomas Bianco. And then there are the five Auburn prisoners who were convicted of phony 'weapon possession' charges due to corrupt Auburn c.o. Matthew Cornell: Naythen Aubain, Donnesia Brown, Sean Gaines, Jose Muniz, and Thomas Ozzborn. ]

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]