• Filed under , Civil Rights , Wrongful Conviction

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Our firm today filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit on behalf of Donnell Perkins, seeking a total of at least $80 million in compensatory and punitive damages against individual police officers who caused Mr. Perkins to be falsely prosecuted in 2000–01 for a Brooklyn homicide he didn’t commit. You can read the lawsuit here. In 2015, firm principal Joel Rudin, troubled by the weakness of the evidence against Mr. Perkins in his criminal case, agreed to represent him pro bono. He and associate Jacob Loup filed a 440 motion on Mr. Perkins’ behalf. Following a 22-day-long evidentiary hearing, Mr. Perkins’ conviction was vacated in January 2023, along with the conviction of his co-defendant Kareem Mayo. Mr. Perkins served 21.5 years in jail and prison because of his wrongful prosecution and conviction. The Perkins lawsuit also seeks to hold the City of New York liable for its unlawful policies that brought about his wrongful conviction. In August 2023, the firm filed another lawsuit on Mr. Perkins’ behalf in the New York Court of Claims, seeking damages for him under the state’s Unjust Conviction Act, which is pending.