Injustice is Undone

Injustice is undone
The New York Post by William J. Gorta  -  May 25, 2011

Did 4 yrs. for crime - with NO charges

It's one thing to go to prison for a crime you didn't commit -- but it's a whole other thing to do more than four years for a crime you weren't even charged with.  A Brooklyn man in the midst of an 18-year prison term was granted $75,000 bail yesterday after an appeals court heard that the crimes he was convicted of had been dismissed before his trial even began.  "I'm happy," said appeals lawyer Rita Dave, who took over Oswind David's case after an appeal on different grounds failed. David, 31, was charged in March 2006 with attempted murder after an altercation with family members at a party in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to court papers. He was also charged with four counts of first-degree assault: two for allegedly using a boxcutter and two for intending to disfigure his alleged victims.  Police said one of the alleged victims was slashed in the neck while the other was cut in the face and neck, requiring 70 stitches.  Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango threw out the charges of using a boxcutter, saying the grand-jury presentation was insufficient to support the charge.  She told the Brooklyn DA's Office it could resubmit those counts to a grand jury, but that never happened and David went to trial on the other charges.  Amazingly, neither defense attorney David Epstein nor two assistant district attorneys nor trial Judge Cheryl Chambers noticed that jurors were allowed to consider the two dismissed counts. In December 2006, the jury acquitted David of all the other counts, including the two involving intent to disfigure, but convicted him of the boxcutter assaults, which earned him the prison term.