Steven Ruffin, a Brooklyn man who served 14 years in jail for a murder he did not commit, had his conviction overturned on Thursday. The case, which was initially probed by infamous ex-NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella, revealed serious flaws, including Ruffin being pressured into admitting after multiple denials.
Ruffin was relieved after Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D’Emic reversed his 1996 manslaughter conviction, according to the New York Post.
“I lost 14 years of my life for a crime I didn’t commit, and today will help me to move on from that chapter of my life, cleared of any wrongdoing,” he exclaimed.
During the court proceedings, Ruffin thanked the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and its Conviction Review Unit for their tremendous efforts in evaluating his decades-old case. Overwhelmed with emotion, he paused to thank his parents and expressed regret that his mother did not survive to see his exoneration.
Ruffin was 18 when he was convicted of the 1996 murder of 16-year-old James Deligny in Crown Heights, which was later proved to be a case of mistaken identity. Deligny was allegedly targeted for stealing Ruffin’s sister Diana’s earrings, according to the DA’s Office.
Following the mugging, a manhunt was launched, culminating in a confrontation between members of a group and Deligny a few blocks from Ruffin’s home. A battle broke out, and Deligny was shot. During interrogations by Scarcella, who was investigating the matter, Ruffin, then 17, denied being the shooter twice.
During the inquiry into Ruffin’s wrongful conviction, the Conviction Review Unit report found that Ruffin’s estranged father, who was a police officer, was brought to the station to urge his son to confess to the murder, falsely alleging that he had shot the deceased four times.
Ruffin was freed on parole in 2010. However, it took more than a decade after his release for prosecutors to revisit the case, revealing major flaws in the first investigation.
“The fact that they actively looked into my case, took the application, and the amount of resources that they put in to exonerate me, it, it—that is what staggers my mind,” Ruffin said. “If they would have never said a word about Scarcella, I would have never known because I live in Georgia.”
During the trial, Deligny’s sister testified that the shooter had a fractured tooth similar to Ruffin’s. However, an investigation discovered that Ruffin’s defense attorney omitted to advise the jury that her sister’s boyfriend also had a fractured tooth.
The lover apparently admitted to many people that he was the true perpetrator of Deligny’s murder, indicating a significant flaw in Ruffin’s case during the trial.
“After a full investigation by my Conviction Review Unit, we can no longer stand by this old conviction and will move to give Mr. Ruffin his good name back,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.
According to the Legal Aid Society, Ruffin’s exoneration marks the 18th case involving Scarcella that has been overturned. Since 2014, the Conviction Review Unit has invalidated 37 convictions.
“We will continue to correct miscarriages of justice and to learn from the mistakes we uncover to ensure that they never happen again,” Gonzalez said.