By Bryan Schwartzman
A Queens Supreme Court judge exonerated Harris, 32, of the 1991 robbery of a couple in their Jamaica Estates home. Judge Randall Eng said Harris was jailed for 3,200 days for a robbery he did not commit, and he told Harris that while he can never get back the days he lost, he can move on with his life.
Harris's older brother, Harold Harris, testified last week that he and an accomplice committed the robbery, said District Attorney Richard Brown. The DA said that in light of new evidence brought to him by Harris' lawyers, he agreed with Eng's decision to free the former boxer.
“It is a decision in which, after a full and complete investigation of all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the defendant's arrest and conviction, including the administration of a polygraph examination, I concur,” Brown said in a statement.
“Right now he's going to concentrate on getting back into a normal lifestyle,” said Philip Smallman, Harris' attorney. Smallman said he was referred to the case in 1997 by New York Daily News columnist and Bayside resident Denis Hamill, who had written about the case.
The robbery took place on Dec. 18, 1991 inside the garage of a private home in Jamaica Estates, said Brown. In November 1992 he was sentenced to nine to 18 years in prison by Eng.
Harris turned down a plea-bargain offer and maintained at the trial he was home with his family the night of the crime, Smallman said.
A month after the conviction Harold Harris appeared in court to admit his role in the crime, but the case was put off and he fled the state.
“The evidence was there, it wasn't used properly or investigated,” said Smallman.
“It's still the best criminal justice system in the world,” he said. “but it's only as good as the people who work in it.”
Harold Harris was later arrested and convicted of federal drug charges in Washington, D.C. and while he was willing to clear his brother, it was not until Smallman and attorney William Hellerstein found an accomplice who backed up Harold Harris' confession that Brown decided to reopen the case.
Ian Davis and Harris Dockery both admitted to being accomplices and backed up Harris' story in court.
Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for Brown, said the DA is mulling whether to charge Harold Harris in the robbery. She said Davis and Dockery would not be charged because the statute of limitations has already passed, but Harold Harris may be tried because he was imprisoned out of state. De Bourbon said Harold Harris is not protected by statute of limitations laws because he was incarcerated.
Gerald Harris, who was 24 when he was arrested, spent a good chunk of his early adulthood behind bars for a crime he did not commit and has in all probability missed whatever chance he had at becoming a championship fighter.
“It was a lost opportunity,” said Smallman. “But he is still in good shape and if he wants to give it a shot, he could.”
