24 THENEWYORKER,MARCH2, 2020
fiction,” she wrote. But Goldstein’s ex
pense report included $17.41 for “cig
arettes and soap for inmate.” The at
tached receipt was dated the day that
Burns had testified.
As I studied Goldstein’s files, I kept
thinking about a phrase that Henning
had used to describe the murder inves
tigation: an “inherently flawed exercise
in tunnel vision.” After James Walker
gave police Smokes’s name, the inves
tigation had focussed on Smokes and
Warren. But there had been plenty of
reasons to be wary of Walker. At Ca
narsie High School, he had been in a
class for “emotionally disturbed” stu
dents, and he was transferred out “for
being constantly in fights,” according to
records in Goldstein’s file. In the months
before Walker testified at the murder
trial, he was arrested for the sixth and
seventh times.
Still, detectives and prosecutors had
believed Walker’s claims and disre
garded those of Niles Williams, who
was with Smokes and Warren on New
Year’s Eve. Williams, who was nine
teen at the time and had a fulltime job
delivering beer, had testified on their
behalf, vouching for their whereabouts
the entire night.
Before the trial, the police had in
terviewed Williams repeatedly, and
Goldstein had compiled a file on him.
When I opened it, I found some of Wil
liams’s school records. One teacher had
written, “Niles is a lovely boy with a
good sense of humor.” Another described
him as a “quiet, responsible child.”
Williams now lives in North Caro
lina. When I called him recently, he viv
idly remembered being questioned by
lawenforcement officers in this case.
“That’s scary for any young black guy,”
he said. “I thought they were going
to charge me.” He became more dis
traught as he spoke. “It had me real
upset, because I knew it was not the
truth, because we never made it to the
area where the crime happened,” he said.
“I kept telling them the same thing over
and over.”
O
n January 14th, the date that Judge
Antignani had set to announce
his decision, jury selection for Harvey
Weinstein’s trial had recently begun. At
the courthouse across the street, there
were Court TV trucks and a dozen
officers in bulletproof vests. Smokes
and Warren met in front of 111 Cen
tre Street; this time, they had brought
their wives, relatives, and friends. War
ren’s daughter, Kali, had taken the day
off from school, and was dressed up in
a skirt, white tights, and black patent
leather shoes.
Shortly after 10 A.M., the group filed
into the courtroom. Smokes and War
ren sat in the back row. As they waited
for the proceeding to begin, Smokes held
his head back, eyes closed. A clerk called
out their names, and they walked to the
front, sitting beside their attorneys.
Antignani addressed the lawyers first.
“It was a pleasure having each of you in
my courtroom in front of me,” he said.
“You taught me a lot. Each of you were
thorough, prepared, knew your stuff....
I just want to thank you for guiding me
throughout this case.”
He continued, “To Mr. Smokes and
Mr. Warren, I realize that what you both
want is a decision, and that will be forth
coming. But you also both demonstrated
in my courtroom the utmost respect for
the process, and I appreciate that as well.”
He announced, “I’m going to give
out my decisions now.” A court officer
delivered a stack of papers to each at
torney. The judge summed up his rul
ing: Smokes and Warren “had the bur
den of proof ” in this case, and “the court
has not been persuaded.” The defen
dants’ motion was “denied in all respects.”
He concluded, “That is the ruling of
the court. Court is adjourned.”
The courtroom remained silent.
Slowly, Smokes, Warren, and their fam
ilies walked out. In the hall, a Daily
News reporter and two television crews
gathered around Smokes and Warren,
asking for their reaction. Warren’s eyes
filled with tears, and Smokes spoke. “I’m
devastated,” he said. “No question, I’m
going to keep fighting. I don’t have no
other choice but to keep fighting.”
Judge Antignani’s decision echoed
many of the arguments that Keenan
had made in her memo to the court.
He found Robert Anthony and Kevin
Burns “not credible.” He gave “limited
credence” to James Walker’s affidavit,
because Walker had died before he
could be crossexamined. He also ques
tioned whether the police tactics that
the witnesses had described amounted
to intimidation. “Defendants ask this
court to believe that coercion, intimi
dation and threats by law enforcement
led many witnesses to testify falsely
against Smokes and Warren,” he wrote.
“The evidence presented at the hear
ing belies this contention. No witness
testified that the police used any phys
ical threats or physical force to obtain
testimony.” He characterized Smokes’s
and Warren’s testimonies at their pa
role hearings as “compelling evidence
of their guilt.”
Henning and Sussman plan to ap
peal the ruling, but there is no guaran
tee that the appeal will be heard. First,
they have to persuade the Appellate
Division to accept their case, and, even
if they are successful, they may have to
wait two years for the court’s decision.
The day after Antignani’s ruling, the
Daily News ran a photo of Smokes and
Warren beneath the headline “STILL
GUILTY IN ’87 SLAY.”
Three days later, I called Warren,
and he patched in Smokes on a three
way call. Both men said that they had
started reviewing the judge’s decision,
but found it too painful to read every
page. Smokes was particularly incensed
by the claim that he and Warren had
“an interest in the outcome of the mo
tion beyond simply restoring their rep
utation.” Judge Antignani had written,
“They admitted that, should their con
viction be overturned, they will seek
significant civil damages.”
“I’m highly insulted that the judge
would think that we’re trying to scam
the system, that we’re doing this for
money,” Smokes said. “I’m disgusted.”
For years, friends had been telling
Smokes that he should put the past be
hind him. But, he said, “this follows me.
This is the albatross, the thing that hangs
around my neck.” Warren said, “It’s like
a noose on my neck I got to wear for
the rest of my life.”
Warren said that Kali kept asking
questions. “She was, like, ‘Dad, why did
they deny you? Why do they keep try
ing to say you did something you didn’t
do?’” Warren did not “want her to think
the system is all bad,” he said, so he prom
ised that they would talk about it when
she was a little older. Still, he said, “she
wants to know: if they made a mistake,
why don’t they just correct the mistake?
She can’t understand why they just don’t
want to correct it.”
