Carl Miller served 30 years in prison after being convicted in 1980 0f murdering Rabbi David Okunov in Brooklyn. This week, a judge vacated his conviction, saying that Miller “is actually innocent” of the crime.
The ruling means that Okunov’s murder, which shocked New York at the time, is unlikely ever to be solved. The rabbi, who had moved to the United States from the Soviet Union three years earlier, was killed while walking to morning prayer services in Crown Heights. He was robbed of his prayer shawl and tefillin.
Miller, who was 19 at the time, always maintained his innocence, and his conviction came as New York City’s murder rate peaked, with more than seven times as many killings per year than today. In recent years, revelations that convictions from the era were based on coerced confessions or falsified evidence has led to the exoneration of dozens of people in Brooklyn alone. The judge’s declaration that Miller is innocent, rather than falsely convicted, meets a higher legal standard…