DA To Drop Murder Charges Against Tankleff

[Resident Smart Ass]

DA To Drop Murder Charges Against Tankleff


POSTED: 3:30 pm EST January 2, 2008
UPDATED: 6:37 pm EST January 2, 2008



HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. -- A man imprisoned more than 17 years in the 1988 killing of his parents will not face a second murder trial in the case.

Case Against Tankleff Closed


"It is no longer possible to reasonably assert that the case ... would be successful," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.


He said his office will formally drop the indictment against Martin Tankleff in the 1988 deaths of Arlene and Seymour Tankleff at a scheduled Jan. 18 court conference in Riverhead.

Spota also announced he will ask Gov. Eliot Spitzer to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate claims made by Tankleff and his defense attorneys that Seymour Tankleff's business associate or others may have been involved in the killings. Tankleff, now 36, was convicted in 1990 of killing his parents in their home in the exclusive Belle Terre neighborhood overlooking Long Island Sound. He was released after serving 17 years of a 50-year term after a New York appeals court found that new evidence uncovered by private investigators suggested the Tankleffs may have been killed in a business dispute. The panel said it was "probable" that a new jury would render a different verdict, if given a chance to reconsider all evidence now available. It did not find, however, that Tankleff was innocent and instead directed that a new trial be held. Tankleff was released last week on $1 million bail and immediately started working on what he expected would be his upcoming trial.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/14963893/de...l?dl=mainclick

[countybear]

Hell, I wish the jerkoffs that kill people around here got that much time... 17 years? That's the equivalent of a 50 year sentence down here with "good time" rolled in.