A celebrated criminal justice advocate who spent 23 years in a New York prison for a murder he did not commit has finally been exonerated.
Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez was found guilty in the 1998 murder of retired police officer Albert Ward in Harlem. Ward was shot and killed after trying to stop an armed robbery at a gambling parlor he owned in Harlem.
At the time, multiple eyewitnesses pinned the shooting death on then-22-year-old Velazquez, who was in the Bronx having a long phone conversation with his mother as the crime was happening. Phone records supported his alibi. Nonetheless, jurors found Velazquez guilty and he was sentenced to 25 years to life in Sing Sing prison.
Several appeals failed in the years after his conviction, but national media began to highlight the holes in Velazquez’s case. His case was spotlighted by “West Wing” and “Apocalypse Now” star Martin Sheen in 2011 and featured on NBC’s “Dateline” in 2012.
Former New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo approved Velazquez’s early release from prison in 2021. However, his criminal record still labeled him a convicted felon and he still had to complete a parole sentence.
It wasn’t until 2022 when results from a DNA analysis would spur the dismissal of his conviction entirely.
That year, the city’s newly-formed Post-Conviction Justice Unit analyzed the DNA on a betting slip from the armed robber who shot Ward. Velazquez’s DNA was not found on the slip. The DNA comparison wasn’t available during Velazquez’s 1999 trial, but if it had, it could have significantly impacted the jury’s decision, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
“With the consent of the People I am granting the petition to set aside the verdict on the grounds of newly discovered evidence,” Judge Abraham Clott said in a courtroom on Monday.
Meeting with reporters and supporters outside the court with his family, 48-year-old Velazquez met his supporters while wearing a baseball cap with the words, “End of an error.”
“This isn’t a celebration. This is an indictment of the system,” Velazquez said. “There are so many people in my life who became the life support for me to be able to breathe when I couldn’t breathe myself because my circumstances were too thick.”
Velasquez’s mother was one of his biggest supporters. Passionately telling reporters that she ensured Velazquez maintained a relationship with his family while in prison. “I took them every week to visit. Every single week. Because it was important for us to remain a family. It was important for them to know who their father was because he was an innocent man who had been wrongfully incarcerated. Kidnapped from his family!”
JJ VELAZQUEZ WAS EXONERATED & NOW A FREE MAN, SERVING 24 YEARS: WRONGFUL CONVICTION.
#TheFamilyTV📺 pic.twitter.com/Cmr5rDEVVK— TheFamilyTv (@TheFamilyTv22) October 1, 2024
Following the commutation of his sentence, Velazquez met with President Joe Biden and appeared in the 2023 movie “Sing Sing” alongside actor Colman Domingo.
During his incarceration, Velazquez became a paralegal and earned his bachelor’s degree in behavioral science. As a teaching fellow under a Columbia University professor, he enlisted inmates in gun violence prevention and youth mentorship programs. He also collaborated with fellow inmates to get their convictions tossed.
Velazquez told The New York Times he will continue working for the wrongfully convicted.
“I left a lot of innocent people behind,” he said.
