At the direction of a new district attorney, Brooklyn prosecutors are dropping their challenge to a high-profile habeas corpus grant in a case that Eastern District Judge Nicholas Garaufis (See Profile) called “rotten from day one.”
Last year, Garaufis ordered the release of William Lopez, who had served 23 years in prison for a murder he insists he did not commit. Garaufis later blocked the possibility of retrial because prosecutors in the office of former District Attorney Charles Hynes did not take “concrete and substantial steps” to retry Lopez within a 60-day deadline.
