Brooklyn DA Will Have to Testify in Wrongful Conviction Case That Alleges Widespread Prosecutorial Misconduct

The district attorney Charles Hynes has been fighting the effort to testify under oath about his oversight of the DA's office

For more than two years, Jabbar Collins and his lawyer have pursued a multi-million dollar wrongful conviction lawsuit against New York City. They have unearthed what they claim is damning evidence of misconduct by prosecutors in the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes. They have obtained a sworn affidavit from a man who said he was forced by prosecutors to lie on the stand during Collins' murder trial. They have named the individual prosecutors to hold them personally accountable.

But their aims have not been limited to establishing possible wrongdoing in the 1995 case that sent Collins to prison for 16 years. Instead, the lawsuit has included an additional, ambitious allegation: that Hynes, over many years, ran a district attorney's office that overlooked, condoned and even rewarded misconduct by its prosecutors.