Gerald Harris wrongly jailed for brother's crime

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Gerald Harris could have been a contender. Instead, he wound up a convict -- wrongly jailed for eight years for a 1991 crime committed by his lookalike brother.

A judge reversed that decision Friday, freeing the 32-year-old ex-Golden Gloves boxer 10 days before Christmas.

Harris stood stoically as the judge's decision was announced, then shook his attorney's hand. Friends and family members who crowded the Queens courtroom exploded into cheers.

"It's about time!" shouted his sister, Sandy Harris.

He walked out of the court, and was handed a cellular phone to talk to his mother in Baltimore. But Harris, bypassed by the technological explosions of the last few years, didn't know what to do with it.

"This is all new to me," he said.

Harris had steadfastly maintained his innocence since his 1992 conviction for holding up a couple in the driveway of their home in an exclusive section of Queens.

He was sentenced to nine to 18 years in prison by Justice Randall Eng, the same man who freed him Friday. Eng finally determined that Harris' brother, Harold, told the truth last week when he confessed to the robbery.

"I'm going to return you to your family, to the people who have loved you and been behind you. No one can give your young adulthood back, that's beyond anyone's power. Make peace with those who wronged you and make peace with yourself," Eng said.

"I've dreamed about that for a long time, for a real long time," Harris said of hearing the judge set him free. "It feels real good."

The Queens district attorney had endorsed Harris' effort to overturn his conviction, said spokeswoman Mary de Bourbon.

Gerald Harris was arrested one month after the robbery as he rode around in a car with another man, the driver of the getaway car on the night of the holdup.

At the original trial, the two victims identified Gerald Harris as their attacker in the Dec. 18, 1991, attack -- an easy mix-up, since Gerald and Harold were exactly the same height and weight, with similar features.

It was only after his conviction that Gerald Harris discovered his brother was behind the crime. Harold Harris intended to confess eight years ago, but he disappeared after his brother's appeal was initially postponed.

Harold Harris was later convicted of drug charges in South Carolina and sentenced to 25 years to life.

Harris and another man who also admitted taking part in the robbery will not be charged with the crime because a five-year statute of limitations has expired.

When it comes to his brother, Gerald Harris said, "Me and him got nothing to say."

At the time of the robbery, Gerald was home with family members watching tapes of his Golden Gloves bouts. Although he testified about his alibi, the jurors convicted him anyway.

Gerald's attorney, William Hellerstein, entered the case after reading a newspaper account. He was able to contact Harold Harris in a South Carolina jail and arrange for the older brother to admit his role in the robbery.

Harris said he plans to return to boxing. His former trainer, Bobby Jackson, was at court to greet him in his return to freedom.

i don't know what kind of laws there are in NY, and the boxing career theory may help him recoup a bigger award. Hope so.