“Sing Sing” actor JJ Velazquez exonerated of murder in New York

A “Sing Sing” actor has signaled the “end of a wrong” after New York prosecutors ruled he was wrongfully convicted of murdering a retired police officer in the 1990s.

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg announced Monday that his office would overturn the murder conviction against actor Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, citing “newly discovered DNA evidence” that prosecutors said proved his innocence. “JJ Velazquez has lived in the shadow of his convictions for more than 25 years, and I hope today begins a new chapter for him,” Bragg said.

Velazquez, 48, was convicted in the 1999 shooting death of retired police officer Albert Ward. Ward was shot in 1998 when he tried to foil an armed robbery and shot two suspects, including the gunman, in an underground betting shop in Harlem. Velazquez, who said he was in the Bronx talking on the phone with his mother at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. In 2021, then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo granted him early release and clemency.

The district attorney's office, which said it rejected requests to overturn Velazquez's conviction in 2014 and 2018, said Monday it had finally re-examined the actor's case, prompting the chief medical examiner to compare the actor's DNA with the to compare DNA on a betting slip that belonged to the shooter.

“Testing determined that Velazquez’s DNA was excluded or not found from a DNA mix on the betting slip handled by the shooter,” Monday’s news release said, adding that “this type of DNA comparison is not possible at this time was not available”. the trial of the actor in the 90s.

The district attorney's attempt to clear his name this week “is not a celebration,” Velaquez told members of the media outside a courthouse. Surrounded by his loved ones and wearing a black cap that read “End of a Mistake,” Velazquez told reporters that the moment was “an indictment of the system.”

Velazquez shares the screen with Colman Domingo and Paul Raci in Greg Kwedar's drama Sing Sing. The film highlights the “Rehabilitation through the Arts” theater program for men incarcerated in New York City prison. “Sing Sing” also stars former incarcerated actors Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, Sean “Dino” Johnson, David “Dap” Giraudy and Patrick “Preme” Griffin. In her review for the LA Times, critic Katie Walsh praised her “damn good performances.”

“'Sing Sing' makes a powerful argument for humanity's existence in a space designed for dehumanization,” Walsh wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.