Carmon's attorney David Keenan: "An egregious wrong has been committed."
Adam Carmon’s lawyers have moved to get their client out of prison after three decades now that a state judge has vacated his conviction for a notorious murder.
That’s the latest following State Superior Court Judge Jon Alander’s order last week granting Carmon’s request for a new trial, and thereby vacating Carmon’s conviction for the 1994 murder of seven-month-old baby Danielle Monique Taft. (Read more about the case, and about the suppressed evidence and new science that persuaded Alander to grant Carmon the right to a new trial, here.)
Alander’s decision means that in court, Carmon is now presumed innocent until proven guilty of a crime that sent shockwaves throughout New Haven in the 1990s. If the state chooses to retry Carmon’s case, prosecutors will bear the burden of proving that Carmon is guilty of the murder.
Despite his vacated conviction, Carmon remains incarcerated.
That’s because in Connecticut, habeas corpus petitions for a new trial that result in a vacated conviction trigger an “automatic stay” — delaying the consequences of the judge’s ruling by 10 days so that the state has an opportunity to appeal the decision.
On Thursday, the day after Alander granted Carmon’s request for a new trial, Carmon’s attorneys submitted a motion to end that automatic stay and reinstate Carmon’s case in the criminal court docket.
If the judge grants that motion, Carmon would then be allowed to request a bond hearing immediately. He’d be assigned to a new trial judge. A hearing date would be set. And the judge would consider whether to free Carmon from prison for the duration of his new trial.
That is, if Carmon has a new trial at all.
The state has not yet decided whether it will retry the case. New Haven State’s Attorney John Doyle did not respond to the Independent’s request for comment by the publication time of this article.
Carmon’s lawyers are hopeful. “It’s apparent from the judge’s decision that this is not a retriable case. An egregious wrong has been committed,” said David Keenan, the lead attorney representing Carmon. He cited strong wording from Judge Alander, who wrote in his decision, “How could anyone have confidence in a verdict of guilty in a case such as this?”
Keenan urged the state’s attorney’s office to drop the case against Carmon, and called on New Haven’s city leaders to help advocate for that outcome.
“Why they are not pressing for his immediate release?” he asked about the city, arguing that detectives working for the city were among the people who allegedly framed Carmon. “Every day that he spends [in prison] is another day of deliberate indifference.”
In a statement to the Independent, City Corporation Counsel Patricia King wrote, “The City is not familiar with the evidence in this case and is not in a position to opine on the matter at this time. We defer to the State’s Attorney to make the appropriate determination as to whether or not the case should be retried.”
See below for a series of articles about Carmon’s petitions for a new trial last April and May, and click here for court documents pertaining to that civil case.
Previous Independent coverage of Adam Carmon habeas trial:
- Day 1: New Trial Sought In Baby’s Murder
- Day 2: Lost Years Flow Into Courtroom 5a
- Day 3: Trial Goes Down Memory Hole
- Day 4: Hyphen, Click Probed In Baby-Murder Case
- Day 5 & 6: Trial Q: When Did 2nd Suspect Not Lie?
- Day 7: Q For Judge: Would Verdict Have Changed?
- The ruling: New Trial Ordered In Baby-Murder Case
Click here to read articles published at the time of Danielle’s murder about the circumstances both in the case and the surrounding neighborhood, as well as an interview with the man who owned the gun stolen to commit the killing. Click here for a story about how the family and neighborhood were faring 20 years after the murder, and here for an account of Danielle’s posthumous 21st birthday.
