Attorney calls for release of wrongfully convicted CT man after judge’s ruling. ‘It’s an atrocity.’

A New Haven man remains incarcerated after 31 years despite a federal court ruling that he was wrongfully convicted.

Maleek Jones is one of several New Haven men whose convictions in the 1980s and 1990s have been overturned, according to his attorney, Alex Taubes. New Haven police from that era have been criticized for withholding evidence, among other forms of misconduct.

U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall issued her ruling Aug. 11 that “the state court’s decisions in Maleek Jones’ case violated the federal Constitution and said that his conviction cannot stand,” Taubes said Monday, when a small rally was held outside state Superior Court in New Haven.

“This is only the second time in Connecticut history to my knowledge that a federal district judge has overruled a state case,” he said.

Taubes said State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr. should release Jones immediately. Doyle has 60 days to do so, to decide to retry Jones or to appeal Hall’s ruling.

Taubes said Jones was one of three men, including Adam Carmon and Scott Lewis, who were convicted within two months of each other. “All three cases were tried in March, April of 1995, three murder trials in the same two months in the same courthouse … all overturned because they were wrongfully obtained,” Taubes said.

“But, of course, we know that there are many more, and that’s why we’re protesting,” he said. “But we’re also protesting because of Maleek’s situation. The judge has made her ruling. Her ruling was not just that the state judges were wrong, but they were objectively unreasonable, that their conduct essentially was outrageous in allowing this to happen.”

Taubes called Hall’s ruling “unassailable” and that Jones should be released immediately.

“The man has been in prison since he was 19 years old,” Taubes said. “He’s 50 years old today. He lost his teens. He lost his 20s. He lost his 30s. He lost his 40s for something that Judge Hall said was not only wrong but objectively unreasonable, a standard only one other case has met in the history of Connecticut.”

He said the state should release Jones rather than consider whether to retry him. Doyle also can decide to appeal Hall’s ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“But in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has sharply curtailed the power and authority of federal courts to overturn state court convictions,” Taubes said. “They have basically said that even when there’s proof of innocence that hasn’t been brought to the state court judges first, the federal judge is not even allowed to hear it.”

Taubes called on Doyle to announce he will not retry the case and order Jones to be released.

“Every day that Maleek Jones remains incarcerated, from today on, that’s on John Doyle,” Taubes said. “That’s on him, because the decision is now in his hands to free an innocent man from prison who’s been in prison for 31 years. It’s an atrocity. It’s disgusting.”

“To say the system failed I think is an understatement,” said James Jeter, who served time with Jones and was wearing a T-shirt depicting Jones with his baby son, who is now 31 years old.

“There’s so much that the state didn’t do,” Jeter said. “There was a mission to convict. When you withhold evidence, when you have subpar lawyers and white jurors who don’t understand New Haven … who had a very bad idea or ideology of what was happening in urban cities, it’s not hard to convict.”

Jeter also said the state’s main witness, who lied in the original trial, “had been far more consistent and telling the truth in 2009 and 2015, when he stated that he testified under duress.”

Another witness, who had seen the killer and said Jones did not fit his description, did not testify at trial, Jeter said.

Adriana Milner of Bloomfield also was wearing a Free Maleek T-shirt.

“I think it’s important that we spread awareness that Maleek is one of many wrongfully convicted,” she said. “It’s important that we free him and free the other Black and brown people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes that they have not committed. I think it’s important to spread awareness.”

Referring to her T-shirt, Milner said, “the child who he’s holding in this photo is 31. And he hasn’t had a real chance to build that physical, emotional connection with his dad. And that’s unfair to think about a child growing up with a parent in the system, knowing that they’re not supposed to be there.”

Doyle issued a comment Monday, saying, “The matter is under review by the Division of Criminal Justice. We’re considering all of our options including whether the State will appeal the federal court’s decision.”

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.