Newly public documents in the high-profile wrongful conviction case of Jabbar Collins show former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has long believed the man is not guilty, and also that the district attorney’s office held reluctant witnesses in custody.
Hynes, who testified at a deposition in December while still district attorney, directly contradicted the city’s insistence that Collins was guilty of a murder that kept him behind bars for 16 years. Hynes also seemingly contradicted himself, saying that the office detained material witnesses. At a public debate several months earlier, Hynes denied that his office had ever “held anyone against their will.”
