February 27, 2007
After serving 15 years for murder despite having a credible alibi, Willkie client Jose Garcia has been ordered released from prison. In December 2006, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Willkie’s request for a writ of habeas corpus in the case of Garcia v. Portuondo. Bronx prosecutors have now decided not to retry the case.
Calling this an “exceptionally troubling case,” Judge Kaplan said that Mr. Garcia was convicted because his original representation “was well below minimal standards of competence.” Willkie lawyers took on Mr. Garcia’s case as a pro bono matter. The judge agreed with Willkie that the 1993 trial, which rested on the testimony of one witness who claimed to have seen the shooting, was completely botched. The judge credited Mr. Garcia with a strong alibi, including documentation that would prove he was out of the country at the time of the murder in question. He said that the jury “heard almost nothing of this alibi.” Judge Kaplan also said that Willkie’s pro bono effort, which was handled by partner Martin Klotz and associates Matthew Bosher and Stephen Vogel, “was in the highest tradition of the Bar.”
Mr. Klotz told the Associated Press that he was “absolutely delighted” that prosecutors did not attempt a retrial, which they would have had to initiate within 60 days of Judge Kaplan’s initial ruling. Willkie will now assist Mr. Garcia in legalizing his status so that he could resume living with his ex-wife and their four children, all of whom are citizens of the United States.