NEW YORK, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A New York appeals court threw out the conviction Friday of a man found guilty of fatally beating and stabbing his parents in 1988.
Lawyers for Martin Tankleff, who was 17 when his parents were killed in their Garden City home, have been fighting for years to get him a new trial. Four appeals judges ruled unanimously in his favor, The New York Times reported.
"It is abhorrent to our sense of justice and fair play to countenance the possibility that someone innocent of a crime may be incarcerated or otherwise punished for a crime which he or she did not commit," the opinion said.
Tankleff confessed to the killings but recanted almost immediately. His supporters, who include 31 former prosecutors, believe that three other men committed the crime, acting for Seymour Tankleff's business partner.
After his conviction in 1990, Tankleff was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison.
