Rubin Carter - Second Conviction and Appeal

Second Conviction and Appeal

During the new trial, witness Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness.

The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses identifying Carter at the locations he claimed to be at the morning the murders happened.

Defense witness Fred Hogan – whose efforts had led to the discredited recantations of Bello and Bradley – dealt the defense yet another blow. Although Hogan denied ever offering any bribes or inducements to Bello, Judge Bruno Leopizzi forced him to produce his original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello.

The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge.

After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men – a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis.

Artis was paroled in 1981.

Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded there had been no violation of Brady.