News about Eric Gonzalez

After an inquiry revealed that his friend was responsible for the shooting, a Brooklyn man who spent nearly two decades in jail for a 1990 murder he did not commit will have his conviction dismissed on Thursday. Jonathan Powell, a 17-year-old boy at a Bedford-Stuyvesant (precise address not shown), was shot dead after a brawl at a Bedford-Stuyvesant (precise address not pictured) house party on October 27, 1990. Despite witness testimony that contradicted and McDowell's assertion that it was his friend who actually did the shooting, the New York Police Department investigated the murder for only 24 hours, which resulted in detectives arresting McDowell.

Sheldon Thomas, now 35, was wrongfully charged with the 2004 murder of Anderson Bercy on Snyder Avenue (inset) in Brooklyn. Thomas was found guilty unlawful by the Conviction Review Unit of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit, despite nearly 20 years. Another 17-year-old with the same name had actually been involved in the murder. Thomas was chosen out of a photo collection, but his photograph never appeared in the set. Witness Aliyah Charles picked another Sheldon Thomas (left) from the array. She said she was 90 percent positive the photograph she picked (left) was the correct one, but she wanted to see them up close and personal. She then selected the wrong Thomas in the lineup, naming both men as the murderer. The misidentification was a "mistake that was first obscured and later explained away during the trial,' according to the Brooklyn DA's Office, as "detectives were determined on arresting the defendant and using the incorrect identification process as pretext."