Sing Sing activist Jon-Adrian Velazquez has been exonerated in the murder of a retired NYPD officer

Jon-Adrian Velazquez spent nearly 27 years in the criminal justice system – almost all of that time behind bars in New York's Sing Sing Prison, convicted of a murder he insisted he did not commit.

It took just four minutes Monday to clear his name.

During a speedy trial in a Manhattan courtroom, a judge overturned Velazquez's conviction for the 1998 murder of a retired New York police officer with the consent of prosecutors – the same district attorney's office that once put him behind bars. The office's review of Velazquez's conviction considered several factors, including recanted eyewitness statements and DNA evidence.

“I want to recognize Mr. Velazquez’s extraordinary achievements during his incarceration and since his release,” New York Supreme Court Justice Abraham Clott told a packed courtroom.

After first approaching NBC News producer Dan Slepian in 2002, Velazquez's persistent efforts to prove his innocence while incarcerated have been documented over the years by NBC's “Dateline,” including in an investigation from 2012 and the podcast “Letters from Sing Sing” from 2023.

In 2021, then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo granted clemency to Velazquez, citing his work in Sing Sing for an incarcerated education initiative to combat gun violence. He was released after nearly 24 years in prison – a life sentence.

On Monday, Velazquez, 48, hugged his family in the courtroom as his ordeal finally came to an end. Outside, surrounded by his mother, his two sons and a crowd of supporters, he wore a baseball cap that read “End of a Mistake.” He kissed one of his sons on the forehead, enjoying the feeling of being officially exonerated.

“For the first time I can breathe,” said Velazquez, who goes by JJ.

He later told NBC News anchor Lester Holt that he no longer defined himself by being a prisoner.

“When we're put through the system, they strip you of your identity, they put you in the shower, bare bottom, shave all your clothes, hose you down like a slave, and then they give you a number and brand you,” said Velazquez. “And that wasn't who I was. And I've been fighting for 27 years to tell them that my name is Jon-Adrian 'JJ' Velasquez.”

Velazquez was 22 when he was arrested in the shooting death of retired police officer Albert Ward at an illegal gambling parlor in Harlem.

He was accused of pulling the trigger, but he said he had an alibi: He said he was on the phone with his mother for 74 minutes. Another man, identified as one of two armed robbers, pleaded guilty to a single count of second-degree robbery and was released in 2008.

Velazquez's years-long attempts to have his conviction overturned have all been rejected. But in 2022, the Manhattan District Attorney's Post-Conviction Justice Unit agreed to a new investigation, including testing any DNA on a known betting slip that Ward's shooter had handled – tests that were not available at the time of the incident.

The results revealed that Velazquez's DNA was not included in the primary evidence.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said it believes the DNA test results played a role in the jury's assessment of the case, including Velazquez's alibi claim and the fact that there were eyewitnesses at the crime scene provided contradictory descriptions of the perpetrator.

In the past two years, Bragg said, the unit has overturned 10 convictions through re-investigations and another 500 involving law enforcement officers convicted of misconduct.

“These convictions have profound consequences for individuals and their families, endanger public safety and undermine trust in the criminal justice system, which is why this work is of utmost importance to me,” he said in a statement on Monday. “We will continue to review these types of cases with the necessary thoroughness and fairness.”

Since his release from prison, Velazquez has used his experience to advocate for criminal justice reform and even played himself in the 2023 drama “Sing Sing,” based on an actual “rehabilitation through the arts” program in prison. The podcast “Letters from Sing Sing” was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting, and Slepian’s book about the case, “The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice,” was a finalist published this month.

Additionally, MSNBC Films will premiere the four-part documentary series “The Sing Sing Chronicles” on the network on November 23rd and 24th.

“Well, besides my mom, Dan is my hero,” Velazquez told Holt. “Everyone knows that.” If it wasn't for Dan, I would still be sitting in a cage.

But despite the renewed attention and relief, there was one thing the judge did not offer Velazquez when he addressed him Monday: an apology.

Velazquez said he missed years of his sons' lives and felt helpless when his mother suffered a heart attack in 2018 while he was incarcerated for someone else's crime.

“Four minutes after 27 years, no apology,” Velazquez said.

The judge “talked about celebrating,” he added, “after the same courtroom destroyed my life. This is not a celebration. This is an indictment of the system.”