NY NY - Seymour, 62, & Arlene Tankleff, 52, Belle Terre, LI, 7 Sept 1988

dottierainbow

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48 Hours" (CBS) will air another hour on Marty's case on Saturday, July 15, at a special time: 9:00 p.m. Expect reporting on new developments since the last show aired, e.g., an interview with Joseph Guarascio, who said his father, Joey "Guns" Creedon, told him of his involvement in the Tankleff murders.
Please if this is in wrong spot, please moderators put it in right spot. Thanks!
I believe this young man is in prison for the crime of others.
Amy
 
"It's "probable" a second jury would acquit him because cops tricked him into confessing and his lawyers have uncovered new evidence.

"It appears the [Suffolk] County Court never considered the cumulative effect of the new evidence created a probability that had such evidence been received at the trial, the verdict would have been more favorable to [Tankleff]," the judges wrote.
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Tankleff, who was convicted in 1990, has been behind bars for more than 17 years for stabbing and bludgeoning his adopted parents, Arlene and Seymour, on Sept. 7, 1988.

Suffolk County detectives extracted a confession from Tankleff after tricking him into thinking his father had fingered him on his deathbed.

Tankleff, then 17, had been subjected to intensive questioning by Detective Kevin McCready, who committed perjury in another murder case.

"Could I have blacked out and done this? Could I be possessed?" Tankleff asked, according to court records.

"Marty, I think that's what happened to you," another detective responded.

Appellate Judges Reinaldo Rivera, Gabriel Krausman, Anita Florio and Mark Dillon wrote that the confession was clearly the linchpin of the prosecution's case.

They said the mountain of new evidence uncovered since the conviction warrants a new trial.

The new evidence includes information that Seymour Tankleff's partner in the bagel business, Jerald Steuerman, owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars and was playing cards with the victim on the night of the murders.

Steuerman, who could not be reached for comment, allegedly hired three goons to kill the Tankleffs. Anthony LaPinta, the lawyer for alleged hit man Joseph Creedon, said his client is an "innocent scapegoat."

A witness testified at a 2004 hearing that he was offered $25,000 from a partner in the bagel business to kill the other partner, but the lower court upheld the conviction.

The judges criticized the lower court for failing to properly evaluate the new evidence.

"It is abhorrent to our sense of justice and fair play to countenance the possibility that someone innocent of a crime may be incarcerated or otherwise punished for a crime which he or she did not commit," they wrote.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...court_bounces_case_of_long_island_man_ja.html

A nice Xmas present for yet another person who was wrongfully convicted.

Hopefully, 2008 will be the year that Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald's murder conviction is overturned based on yet another corrupt North Carolina prosecutor.
 
I'm glad to see this. I always felt that his confession was coerced.
He was only 17 at the time of his conviction, and his parents were just murdered. I'm sure the kid was in shock.
 
I'm glad to see this. I always felt that his confession was coerced.
He was only 17 at the time of his conviction, and his parents were just murdered. I'm sure the kid was in shock.

I agree. I saw his "confession" tape and was shocked when he asked his interrogator if he could live with him since his parents were dead.

It just seemed to me that he wanted to please the interrogator.
 
FINALLY, a Judge with common sense over riding the normal "loyalty to predescor's in the profession". This young man, in the segment pieces that I've seen interviewed very well, expressing nothing but love & affection for his parents along with a lot of respect. Of course he was in shock upon finding his beloved parents so violently treated, how could he not be? This young man didn't have a motive IMO to harm his parents but his Dad's partner certainly did.

I am sincerely hoping that he can go forward with his life knowing how much his parents loved him & that they must have finally gotten through to this ethical, law abiding Judge.

God bless him & keep him safe from the evil that robbed him of his parents & 17 years of his life.
 
So what about the "real killers" still being out there.
Great he is thought to be innocent and is being released but that leaves us with a killer out there somewhere.
 
This is a reason why i am against the death penalty. Except for obvious repeating sexual offenders.
 
http://drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/3603/?id=3603&isTip=&slide=1&null=null

“I am here because I was wrongfully convicted of the murders of my parents,” says 35-year-old Marty Tankleff, speaking from prison. Marty has been behind bars since 1988. “September 7 was supposed to be my first day of my senior year going to high school, but when I woke up that morning my life turned to hell. I walked through the house and noticed that the house was open, the lights were on, and I ended up going into the office area where I saw my father. His throat was cut and there was blood on him, and I knew I had to call 911.”

A 911 tape tells the story of that fateful morning:

Marty: I need an ambulance immediately!
Operator: All right, hold on and I'll connect you.
Marty: It's an emergency. He's gushing blood from the back of his neck. He's got a cut.
Operator: What happened to him?
Marty: I don't know. I just woke up and he's in the office and he's gushing blood, please...
Operator: All right, listen to me! I'm sending you an ambulance.

Marty continues with his account. “Later on in the morning, Detective McCready showed up at my house,” he says, “drove me to police headquarters. I remember being put into a windowless room, no phone. I think there was a desk in there, and a few chairs. It was question, after question, after question. There was hostility, there were accusations.”

Marty explains his thought process at
ffb0bcf931d61b2e5cf25c9f0a664626.jpg
the time. “You know you're not guilty. You didn't do anything — There's no way I could have hurt my parents. I loved them — But question, after question, after question, no matter what you tell them it's not good enough unless it's what they want to hear. You can tell them, 'I'm not guilty.' They don't want to hear that. You can tell them, 'Listen, I want to take a polygraph.' They don't want to hear that. You can tell them you loved your parents. They don't want to hear that. They want to hear what they wanted to hear that morning, and after hours of interrogation you just want that weight lifted off your chest.
974722cb5534ac34c10c285d505886e4.jpg


“Detective McCready had walked out of the room, came back and said, 'They just pumped your father full of adrenaline, and we've got your father on tape saying, "Marty, you did it. And just tell us that you did it.’” Well, I believed them because I knew that my father never lied to me, and I was always brought up that the cops don't lie to you. That written statement that people attribute to me is not in my handwriting. It's not signed by me. The first time I saw that written statement was eight months after September 7th."
02d110cbf734ed749a5ee1c20b295985.jpg

Marty expresses his belief that more witnesses are out there. He says, "Every day I get up, I know that my family is out there fighting for the truth too. If my family thought I was guilty, they wouldn't be there every step of the way. Any time that you're an innocent man in prison there are no good days. A good day will be when they say, 'It's time to go.'"



MORE AT LINKhttp://www.kyross.com/beaded bracelets/blackbeaded.JPG
 
Hopefully, 2008 will be the year that Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald's murder conviction is overturned based on yet another corrupt North Carolina prosecutor.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
Oh Wudge, Wudge, Wudge!
McDonald innocent?!?!? :hand: :doh:
 
http://truthinjustice.org/tankleff.htm

Introductory Comments by Steven Drizin, Sr. Staff Attorney
Center for Wrongful Convictions, Chicago, Illinois

As a teenager, Martin Tankleff was subjected to a lengthy and often brutal psychological interrogation. Reeling from the death of his parents who were murdered in his home, police accused Tankleff of their murder and over the course of his interrogation convinced him (for a short while) that he must have killed them in a blackout. They even told him that his father, who was clinging to life after the attack, had come out of a coma and told police that Marty had attacked him (a lie!). Tankleff immediately recanted the confession but the confession (and little else) led to his conviction in a trial that was covered by Court TV. Since his conviction, several experts in interrogation who have studied the case have raised questions about the truth of the confession and the tactics used to obtain it. Also, in the early 1990's, Suffolk County law enforcement came under intense scrutiny for their interrogation practices which resulted in "confession rates" of more than 90%. Many of these cases involved confessions which were uncorroborated. A series in Newsday chronicled this overreliance on confessions. In today's New York Times, the following article appeared which suggests that there may be new evidence that another man, Tankleff's father's business partner, may have arranged a hit on the Tankleff's. This could be the break that is needed to open Tankleff's cell doors.
 
Out of prison for the first time in 17 years, Martin Tankleff tasted freedom -- literally -- at a post-release soiree where loved ones caught up on old times and speculated about his future.

snip

Arlene and Seymour Tankleff were attacked on Sept. 7, 1988. Martin Tankleff, then 17, confessed to police -- and then recanted. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and was released on bail until his trial in 1990, where a jury convicted him of the crimes.

Tankleff was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

But Thursday, six days after a state appellate panel overturned that conviction, Tankleff walked out of Suffolk County Court a free man, at least for now.

snip

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-litank1227,0,5165660.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

What does everyone think about this??? If anyone knows the story, who do you think did it? Do you believe Tankleff is innocent?
 
I am not familiar with the case but if all they had was a possibly coerced confession from a 17 yo??
Seems the Appellate court thought something in the trial was mis-handled.

It is a fact that certain personalities will confess to crimes they did not commit. It is also easy to coerce someone so young into confessing especially if the police used strong arm tactics.
 
I think this is great! I had followed this story forever and it dropped of my radar. Can't wait to catch up on it again (posting before reading :slap: )
 
I am not familiar with the case but if all they had was a possibly coerced confession from a 17 yo??
Seems the Appellate court thought something in the trial was mis-handled.

It is a fact that certain personalities will confess to crimes they did not commit. It is also easy to coerce someone so young into confessing especially if the police used strong arm tactics.

Yes, I believed his innocence from the beginning...they told him that his dad had told them his son had done it while he was dying. The kid freaked, wondering how he could have done this without remembering, asking if he was possessed. Very sad case.
 
This is wonderful news, and I have prayed for justice in this case for several years! I always believed that the confession was obtained from a compliant young man with respect for and trust in authority figures, and that that was why he confessed. And, there was little if anything on Marty besides that confession. I have seen his story on TV 3 or more times, including in the last couple of months, IIRC. I can read the body language and facial expressions of animals and people pretty well, and I could find nothing about his word choices, statements, mannerisms, facial expressions, or anything that made him appear as if he was hiding anything at all. I believe he is innocent.

What's more there was a man--the business partner of Marty's father--who owed a great sum of money to Marty's father. From my recollection (these details I cannot quote as fact), the man left town and may have even changed his name immediately following the brutal murder of the Tankleff's. Now I hope and pray that whomever murdered the Tankleff's, who from all accounts seemed to have been upstanding, good people, are hunted down and convicted.

Marty may need all of the love, help, and support to begin a new life in the free world. He was just a senior when he was locked up, so he has not been independent pretty much throughout his life. I will keep Marty in my prayers, and I hope that loving family will be there for him during the beginning of his new life. I got the impression from his interviews that he is an intelligent, stable person, so I have a feeling that he will overcome those tainted years spent in prison.

Lion
 
I've seen his story on 48 Hours quite a few times and it just seemed like the system was never going to give him a chance to prove his innocence. May he find his peace, now...
 
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-lilega1228b,0,4400206.story

Experts: Suffolk DA could drop Tankleff charges

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | alfonso.castillo@newsday.com 7:19 PM EST, December 27, 2007 As Suffolk County's elected district attorney, Thomas Spota may have a duty to prosecute the only person ever indicted in the 1988 murders of Seymour and Arlene Tankleff, but there's a good chance he will find a way to gracefully drop the charges against the couple's son, several veteran defense attorneys said Thursday.

"My hope would be that they would look at it and decide it's not worth pursuing at this point," Martin Tankleff defense attorney Barry Pollack, of Washington, D.C., said outside a Riverhead courtroom moments after his client was freed on bail Thursday. "It's time to close the case on Marty."

An appellate court ruling overturning Tankleff's 1990 conviction found there was sufficient new evidence for a new trial.Spota declined to comment on the case Thursday, but told reporters Saturday that the ruling doesn't give him "any alternatives" but to retry him.

Pollack disagreed with Spota's take on the decision, and said it was "his call" whether to seek a new trial or dismiss the charges.

Veteran defense attorney Glenn Obedin said he is counting on the latter option, especially considering prosecutors' shaky chances at a conviction based on 20-year-old evidence and faded witnesses' memories.

"Time is almost always the ally of the defense attorney, and obviously 20 years is a lot of time," said Obedin, who expected Spota's most likely course of action is to eventually dismiss the case while trying to "save face."

That may not be too difficult to do, considering Spota was not involved with the original prosecution of the case, which was brought by former district attorney Patrick Henry's administration. However, the original trial prosecutor on the case, John Collins, is now Spota's chief trial prosecutor.

"I don't think he wants to throw that administration under the bus, but I think he would prefer to be able to say, 'While we would certainly be willing to retry this case and let a jury decide whether or not he did it, it's just not something we could do anymore with the amount of time that's gone by," Obedin said.

If that is Spota's intention, he laid the groundwork by acknowledging Saturday that it would be "difficult" to bring a case against Tankleff two decades since the crime. Spota added that he "had nothing to do" with the original case brought against Tankleff.
 
When will a decision be made about another trial or a release? I've seen his story a couple of times and wondered if he wasn't innocent.

I think it should be against the law to lie to a suspect while trying to get them to admit to doing something wrong. It just isn't right. If there is evidence that a person did commit a crime then that is enough. If in just talking to a suspect the person admits that they are guilty then that is a different story. This happens to often...a person sits in prison and then years later it is found through DNA that the person is innocent.

It would be a terrible thing to be accused of murdering your parents when you didn't do it. One thing that really bothered me was the fact that his whole family have stuck by him and said that he was innocent. That is so unusual and really made me wonder.
 
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2008/01/12/ap/us/d8u4ha4o3.txt

Saturday, January 12, 2008 2:45 PM CST
New Probe in 1988 Murders After Release

By DAVID B. CARUSO

NEW YORK - The state's attorney general said Saturday he will lead a new investigation into the 1988 murders of a couple whose son served 17 years in prison before an appeals court said he might be innocent.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed him as a special prosecutor in the case of Arlene and Seymour Tankleff, who were bludgeoned and stabbed to death at their home on Long Island.

"I'm confident that we can look at it independently, with a top team of prosecutors, that will follow the evidence wherever it leads," Cuomo said. (more at link)
 

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