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Two men cleared in 1985 NYC kidnapping, killing

 
Defense attorney Oscar Michelen comforts David McCallum, center, as he weeps with Rosia Nealy, the mother of Willie Stuckey, in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Defense attorney Oscar Michelen comforts David McCallum, center, as he weeps with Rosia Nealy, the mother of Willie Stuckey, in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Published Oct. 16, 2014

NEW YORK — Cleared of the murder that had put him behind bars for almost 30 years, David McCallum sobbed and thought of the man who wasn't with him.

Co-defendant Willie Stuckey's conviction also was thrown out Wednesday after Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson concluded the two confessed falsely as teenagers to kidnapping and killing a stranger and taking a joyride in his car. But Stuckey wasn't in court Wednesday to be freed. He died in prison in 2001.

"After 29 years, it's a bittersweet moment because I'm walking out alone," McCallum, 45, said as he left court to hugs from relatives and applause from supporters. But, he said, "freedom feels great."

It came after a review by a DA who made wrongful convictions a campaign issue last year, and after McCallum's cause was championed by former boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Carter became an international symbol of injustice when his triple murder conviction was vacated in 1985.

McCallum and Stuckey quickly recanted their confessions in the October 1985 killing, but they were found guilty and lost appeals. Thompson's predecessor reviewed the convictions and decided to stand by them last year, but Thompson said they hinged on untrue confessions, made by 16-year-olds, rife with inaccuracies and peppered with details seemingly supplied by police.

"We have determined that there's not a single piece of evidence that linked David McCallum or William Stuckey to the abduction of Nathan Blenner" or his death, Thompson said.

The news dismayed Blenner's relatives. "We were led to believe, for 29 years, that they're the killers. They confessed," said his sister, Dr. Deborah Blenner.

Recent DNA and fingerprint analyses matched other people, fueling questions about the case, said one of McCallum's lawyers. No one else has been charged.

McCallum said he hopes to speak out about the problem of wrongful convictions.