Derrick Hamilton spent nearly 21 years in prison for a 1991 murder, before being paroled in 2011. Mr. Hamilton has affidavits from four witnesses, including a former police officer, who place him in New Haven, Conn., when the murder occurred. The only eyewitness who testified recanted and provided an affidavit that also was sent to the appeals courts, DA, AG and governor that stated that Mr. Scarcella coerced her into implicating Derrick Hamilton.
When Mr. Scarcella came to arrest him at a beauty parlor, Mr. Hamilton said, the detective gave him a smart-alecky kiss, and then at the precinct “looked me straight in the eye and said he knew for a fact I didn’t do it, but said I didn’t do enough time on a prior case.”
“It was almost 25 years ago that Detective Louis Scarcella came to my business in New Haven, kissed me on the cheek like they do in the mafia movies and said ‘he was sending me to prison for murder even though he knew I was innocent because he felt I did not do enough time for an unrelated arrest.’ Detective Louis Scarcella was true to his word, he coerced false testimony from a young woman who subsequently recanted, but it was too late. I went to prison for 21 years.