The man serving a life sentence for the murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano should have his conviction overturned because police used a ‘racial dragnet’ that targeted black men, argue his attorneys in new court filings.
Chanel Lewis, 27, was convicted of the high-profile August 2016 killing of 30-year-old Vetrano after two trials. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His attorneys are now alleging that prosecutors failed to disclose the use of a so-called ‘racial dragnet,’ in which the NYPD conducted DNA testing on ‘hundreds of black men’ prior to their arrest of Lewis six-months into the murder investigation.
The controversial testing DNA testing method allegedly led the NYPD to launch the dragnet against the men because the lab – Parabon Nanolabs – had concluded that the ‘DNA profile of the perpetrator generated from the crime scene belonged to a black man,’ wrote attorneys Ronald Kuby and Rhidaya Trivedi.
The filing claims that it ‘remains unknown’ how the ‘racial dragnet led specifically to Chanel Lewis’ door.’
A jury found Chanel Lewis, 22, guilty of murder and sexual abuse at his retrial on Monday
Karina Vetrano, 30, went missing on August 2, 2016, after she was last seen jogging near her home in Howard Beach
The alleged use of the dragnet – a systematic search for someone, often a suspected criminal – was not disclosed to Lewis’ legal team ahead of either trial.
Its use only came to light following a whistleblower letter that surfaced prior to jury deliberations at Lewis’ second trial, according to the new filing.
The anonymous letter said that police had pursued two white suspects before taking DNA samples from hundreds of black men and coming to focus on Lewis.
When the letter first became public, Kuby and Triveldi claimed that the letter alerted them to so-called exculpatory evidence about other potential suspects that they say was withheld from them.
They further claimed that police had coerced Lewis’ confession.
In a statement in 2019, the New York Police Department said in a statement that the anonymous letter was ‘riddled with falsehoods and inaccuracies,’ the investigation was painstaking and ‘the evidence clearly shows that Chanel Lewis is responsible for her death.’
Chief Queens Assistant District Attorney John Ryan called the case ‘horrifying.’
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The closely watched murder case initially baffled investigators, who for months were unable to find anyone who matched DNA that was found under the victim’s fingernails from when she fought back.
Despite that DNA evidence and a taped confession, Lewis’ first trial ended in a hung jury.
Lewis’ attorneys repeatedly said during the 2019 retrial that the DNA evidence was suspect and that his confession was coerced by detectives who wore him down until he finally gave them what they wanted.
Furthermore, they claimed he crime scene had been corrupted by various people, including Vetrano’s father, and therefore couldn’t be trusted.
Phil Vetrano, Karina’s father, found her body face down in weeds off a path while helping police search for his daughter.
Vetrano’s family and supporters erupted into applause when Lewis was found guilty on all counts in 2019
Two years ago, some 40,000 people signed a petition demanding that the District Attorney’s office review Lewis’ case because the trial was allegedly rife with issues
In the new filing, the attorneys argue that their client’s right to a fair trial was violated and if the new evidence had been available, he may not have been convicted.
‘While the truth of what happened in this case remains unknown, what is known is that the truth has been willfully, intentionally, and maliciously suppressed, in order to guarantee a conviction,’ reads the filing.
The move from his attorneys to vacate the conviction and request a new trial was years in the making, after it took the attorneys a ‘very long time to confirm that the NYPD used Parabon and it’s racial phenotyping in the Lewis investigation,’ Kuby told the New York Post.
Two years ago, some 40,000 people signed a petition demanding that the District Attorney’s office review Lewis’ case because the trial was allegedly rife with issues.
In a statement, Kuby said: ‘The NYPD engaged in a massive racial dragnet, inspired by a DNA lab not permitted to work in NYC, then worked with a now-disgraced prosecutor to conceal it, hide the documents that would have proven it, and then promoted a phony story about dogged police work and good luck to conceal the intensely racist nature of the investigation.’
Current Queens DA Melissa Katz’s office said: ‘we do not comment on pending litigation.’
