Albany

Carl H. Dukes and Lavell Jones have their lives back and their murder convictions tossed.

The men — who spent most of the last 20 years in prison after being found guilty of coldly murdering a 23-year-old University at Albany student in 1997 — tasted freedom for the first time in two decades Thursday after state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin vacated their convictions in court.

New evidence emerged after a man confessed to the slaying of Erik Mitchell, who was shot in the head at point-blank range on Feb. 18, 1997. Their cases now serve as another frightening example of wrongful convictions highlighted by defense attorneys, judges and even prosecutors as a major problem in recent years in New York.

"I'm overwhelmed. I'm excited. I'm nervous and a whole bunch of other things that I can't even say right now!" Dukes, 39, told the Times Union outside the Albany County Judicial Center, where he was surrounded by family members.

When Breslin announced the convictions had been vacated, Jones, said he "felt like crying a little bit, but I didn't want to. It was unbelievable to hear it."

Dukes, 39, and Jones, 38, who were serving sentences of 37 years to life in prison, walked out of an elevator to embraces and tears from Dukes' elated family members, who are based in Albany, and lawyers for Jones, who are from New York City.

Dukes said he will be able to celebrate the 21st birthday of his daughter. Jones, fighting tears, said: "It's not a jump-for-joy moment. My son is a grown man now. He was born while I was here."

"It's been too long for catching up," Jones added. "I just got to start from where I'm at and try to pick up the pieces now."

When asked what the first thing was that he planned to do as a free man, Dukes pulled up his shirt, showed a skinny waist and said, "Eat!"

Dukes' family members cheered the release but also expressed anger at police at the sequence of events that led to the men's convictions.

Chief Assistant District Attorney David Rossi told the judge that prosecutors and Albany police conducted an extensive re-investigation into the case since learning of the September 2014 arrest in Ohio of Jeffrey J. Conrad, 53, who confessed to the murder and provided details previously known only by police.

Although the murder conviction was vacated, Dukes and Jones each pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery for their roles in an earlier armed robbery at Mitchell's apartment in October 1996. They were immediately sentenced to a maximum of 14 years, which they already served in state prison, and released.

"I'm just happy that my brother is exonerated today," Dukes' sister, Tyhisha Dukes, told the Times Union. "I'm disgusted with the justice system. It's a lot of injustice and it's not fair. You give someone back some time, you say, 'OK, you're released.' But what happens to his life? Mentally, he has to readjust. Mentally, the family has to readjust. You've taken him away from his family. He's missed out on family. There's relatives that are dead that he can never see, hug or touch or they cannot ever see, hug or touch him as a free man. So it's a travesty. I hope that they fix things and find out who else Mr. Conrad murdered and who else is sitting in prison for the crimes that he committed."

Rossi highlighted additional statements by Dukes and Jones' co-defendant, Pierre Lyons, who recanted prior statements to police implicating the men.

"We agree that there is newly discovered evidence and we join in the defense motions," Rossi told the judge.

"The conviction is vacated," Breslin said.

Dukes was represented by Manhattan attorney Don Savatta. Jones was represented by attorneys Glenn Garber and Rebecca Freedman, the respective founder and assistant director of The Exoneration Initiative, a nonprofit group in Manhattan for the wrongfully convicted in New York. The attorneys placed their hands on Jones' shoulder as the judge vacated the conviction.

Garber said his client has been incarcerated three months shy of 19 years.

"It's been very, very difficult for him and we're very fortunate that we're able to bring this case to this point," Garber said. "Obviously, (Jones)' conviction was tainted in many ways and Jeffrey Conrad's confession to the murder really was the string that unraveled everything."

"This conviction was based on extremely weak evidence of guilt," Freedman said. "It was only the confession from Lavell, which was false. It was obtained after 36 or so hours of police questioning after he maintained his innocence for most of that time and it was definitely under duress. So we believe that it goes to show how dangerous false confessions are."

Dukes and Jones pleaded guilty to taking part in an unrelated robbery at Mitchell's address on Oct. 4, 1996, which they had long admitted they took part in — just not the murder the next February. They will be sentenced to time already served.

Police alleged that Dukes and Jones killed Mitchell to silence him from testifying about the earlier robbery. Neither Dukes nor Jones expressed anger at Conrad for keeping quiet about his crime for so many years.

"I'm not bitter toward anybody. I don't hold any animosity," Dukes said. "I'm just glad that whatever touched that man for him to do the right thing at this point, I appreciate it."

Said Jones: "I was actually thinking maybe I should visit him and say, 'Hey. I appreciate it."

Jones stressed that he believes his wrongful conviction was not rare.

"I was one of the lucky ones that was able to be found," he said.

The Times Union reported in February 2015 that Conrad allegedly confessed to killing Mitchell. Police in Ohio charged Conrad with fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend at her home in a small town north of Akron.

The Times Union also reported last month that Conrad provided details about the murder on a videotaped prison interview with Albany detectives in 2014.

"You've always known that they didn't do it," Conrad told the detectives, referring to Dukes and Jones. "They couldn't tell you what kind of gun it was 'cause they didn't know. They couldn't tell you how he fell cause they didn't know. They couldn't tell you a (expletive) thing. Nothing. Nothing. ... You guys knew from the beginning, when you sensed it, that they didn't (expletive) do it ... and you went and told his family all that (expletive): 'Yeah, we got the guys.'"

At the time of the Mitchell murder, Albany police regularly built homicide cases using signed confessions from suspects after lengthy interrogations. Late city Detective Kenneth Wilcox fell under scrutiny in 1999 after obtaining a false confession from 19-year-old Kevin Cherry, who stood trial for the murder of a drug dealer. Cherry was exonerated when an eyewitness came forward and identified the actual killers.

Wilcox, who died in an on-duty car crash in 2006, helped Detective Ronald Matos obtain the murder confession from Dukes, who was being jailed on an unrelated charge. Dukes was left alone with Matos and Wilcox while his public defender, Bertrand Gould, left the room, returning only periodically to see if Dukes needed legal representation. Court records showed Gould was unaware detectives were even accusing Dukes of killing Mitchell.

The six-hour interrogation ended with Dukes signing a detailed statement saying he was only a lookout when Jones killed Mitchell. He was charged with first-degree murder and, at the time, faced a potential death penalty.

Jones underwent a similarly grueling interrogation, and signed a similar confession after being in police custody for two days.

"We could have saved lives by doing things the right way the first time," said Dukes' cousin, Zakee Abdul-Hameed.

Brendan J. Lyons contributed