Ruling Expected Today on Questionable ’91 Murder Conviction

The original incident, along with the Central Park jogger rape case a year earlier, helped to galvanize public concerns about out-of-control crime in the city.

After 25 years of trying to clear himself in a notorious tourist killing, Johnny Hincapie walked out of a courthouse Tuesday, his conviction overturned and his resolve intact.

As CBS2’s Jessica Schneider reported, Johnny Hincapie spent 25 years in prison for his alleged role in the deadly mugging in Midtown.

Now 43, Hincapie was one of seven men convicted in the attack on September 2, 1990 in the 53rd Street/7th Avenue subway station on the Watkins family, who were in town for the U.S. Open, by a pack of teenagers looking for money to pay the cover charge to see a DJ perform at the Roseland Ballroom.

Watkins, 22, was with his family as they headed to Greenwich Village for dinner following a match.

Another defendant was accused of actually stabbing Watkins, but authorities said the whole group bore responsibility for his death.

“We remain committed to re-trying the case, if necessary”, DA’s office spokeswoman Joan Vollero said in a statement. Hincapie was only 18 at the time of the murder.

In hearings over the past several months, Hincapie said he was unaware of the plan to rob Watkins, was not on the platform at the time of the murder and that a detective coerced him into confessing.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is vigorously challenging Hincapie’s appeal. But Hincapie and the five others were still convicted in the case, and while four have since been paroled, Hincapie refused to admit his guilty and stayed behind bars.

But a state judge is ordering a new trial, saying there was not enough evidence to dismiss the case entirely.

This July, three witnesses came forward to say Hincapie was not on the subway platform when the stabbing happened.