New Jersey Man Wrongfully Convicted Allowed To Sue Officers
PLAINFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- A New Jersey man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1985 murders of two children under his care can sue the police officers who he says fabricated a confession that led to his conviction.
In an opinion released Thursday, U.S. 3rd Circuit Judge Morton Greenberg says "we hardly can conceive of a worse miscarriage of justice" than what happened to Byron Halsey.
The ruling overturns a lower-court ruling from last year that said Halsey could not sue the officers.
Halsey says police in Plainfield claimed he had failed a polygraph test that he actually passed and had him sign a false confession.
Halsey's conviction was overturned in 2007 and he was freed. A man arrested for the crimes after that died in jail before he could be tried.
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