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Man Says He Has Been Wrongly Imprisoned For 20 Years, New Haven Police Withholding Evidence

Darcus Henry speaks outside New Haven Police Department, as attorney Alex Taubes looks on.
Caroline Magavern
/
WSHU Public Radio
Darcus Henry speaks outside New Haven Police Department, as attorney Alex Taubes looks on.

New evidence suggests that New Haven police have not disclosed records about an alleged wrongful conviction, and that Gaylord Salters may have been imprisoned for 20 years for a shooting he did not commit.

Darcus Henry is a childhood friend of Salters who was wrongfully convicted in 1996. Henry was freed in 2013 after his case was overturned. He alleges corrupted police and prosecutors have long imprisoned innocent people in New Haven.

“The same state’s attorney’s office did the same thing to me that they did to Gaylord Salters. I was falsely accused of a crime, sent to prison. I spent like 15 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit. They held exculpatory evidence away from us. I understand first-hand what he’s going through," Henry said.

Salter’s attorney, Alex Taubes, said the sole witness to the shooting Salters was convicted for confessed he gave the police a false statement in exchange for protection from an illegal gun charge. But Salters’ freedom of information requests for the records that he said proves his innocence have been blocked by the police.

His attorney submitted a final request for the records before suing the city.

A police spokesperson told the New Haven Independent that the city is open to releasing relevant records.