• Filed under , Police Misconduct , Wrongful Conviction

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The New York Daily News reports that Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Jabbar Collins, a former client and employee of our law firm, to sit on the New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption, which oversees the NYPD. 

A noted “jailhouse lawyer,” Jabbar was in prison for murder when he uncovered evidence that proved that prosecutors had illegally coerced witnesses into testifying falsely against him. Joel took on Jabbar as a client and obtained a rare grant of federal habeas corpus relief. Jabbar was released after 16 years in prison. 

Joel then represented Jabbar in a lawsuit that exposed systemic misconduct at the Brooklyn D.A.’s Office. The lawsuit helped lead to the 2013 defeat of Brooklyn D.A. Charles J. Hynes after 24 years in office, the election of reform candidate Ken Thompson, and the formation of Brooklyn’s Conviction Review Unit. After getting Hynes to confess misconduct and Jabbar’s innocence during a videotaped deposition, Joel recovered $13 million for Jabbar in state and federal lawsuits. 

After his exoneration, Jabbar worked at our firm as a paralegal before going on to found his own consulting agency. In that role he has helped several other wrongfully convicted men gain their freedom and win damages for their ordeals. The Daily News article quotes Joel calling Jabbar’s selection to the commission a “brilliant appointment.” Read it here.