Kenneth Windley has been exonerated and freed after serving nearly 20 years for a 2005 Brooklyn robbery following new evidence and confessions from the actual perpetrators that proved his longstanding claim of innocence.
After spending nearly two decades in prison for a $550 robbery he did not commit, 61-year-old Kenneth Windley was exonerated and freed on Monday following a joint request by his lawyers and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Windley was originally convicted in 2007 after using a stolen money order which he maintained he had purchased at a discount from acquaintances to buy a stove for his mother; however, a reinvestigation involving confessions from two other men currently imprisoned for similar crimes confirmed Windley was “duped” and not involved in the mugging of victim Gerald Ross.
Reflecting on his release, Windley stated, “It cost me 20 years, but they said they corrected it now. So that’s all that matters. So I’m good with that,” while Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez characterized the wrongful conviction as a “cautionary tale,” admitting, “Had we known what the evidence was, this case should have never happened.” Despite the significant portion of his life lost to incarceration, Windley expressed no bitterness as he left the courthouse to reunite with his family, simply remarking, “I’m just going to move on from there.”
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