Karina Vetrano murder: More than 40,000 sign petition to reopen Chanel Lewis case

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Karina Vetrano murder: More than 40,000 sign petition to reopen Chanel Lewis case

By Eyewitness News
Tuesday, July 13, 2021 4:01PM

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Advocacy groups want the case reopened over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, racial profiling, and coerced confessions.

HOWARD BEACH, Queens (WABC) -- Community groups delivered a petition to the Queens district attorney with more than 40,000 signatures calling for the reopening of the high-profile Chanel Lewis case.

Lewis was sentenced to life in prison in 2019, for the murder of Karina Vetrano while she was jogging in Howard Beach.
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Advocacy groups want the case reopened over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, racial profiling, and coerced confessions.

"We want to say to DA Katz today, get it right, we want this overturned, and we want a new trial," said Mike Thomas, an activist. "We had the Central Park 5 and we're not going to have the Howard Beach 1 with Chanel Lewis. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace."

Over 40,000 New Yorkers signed the petition demanding a fair trial for Chanel Lewis.

The petition calls for Queens DA Melinda Katz to refer Chanel Lewis' case to the Conviction Integrity Unit for the investigation to reopen his case and release him on bail.

Katz had previously indicated that her office would "look at" the case and "see how the Conviction Integrity Unit feels about it."

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Color Of Change, VOCAL-NY, Housing Justice for All, NYC Action Lab, LIFE Camp, and Drum NYC say that they are making their claims under the guidelines of the CIU.

The guidelines state investigations may be opened where there is "a credible claim of actual innocence or other wrongful conviction."

 

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Chanel Lewis sentencing in Karina Vetrano murder case

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SENTENCING HEARING: Chanel Lewis is being sentenced for the murder of Karina Vetrano back in August 2016. More: https://7ny.tv/2IBbYyQ

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[Louis Koo]

they got the wrong man. it's a white guy. fucking crackers

 

[Mrfreddygoodbud]

Racist ass Howard Beach mafia faggots

Set that poor mentally challanged bruh up

 

[lightbright]

I'm betting that more than 40,000 would sign a petition to stop OP from posting.... ever again


.

 

[An RnB Thug]

No way he did it.
He look like he can't chew gum and walk at the same time yet he
went way out there, beat up, raped and killed her AND got away clean? FOH

 

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Chanel Lewis’ conviction for killing Queens jogger Karina Vetrano should be scrapped over ‘racial dragnet’: lawyers​

By
Priscilla DeGregory
August 22, 2023 5:53pm
Updated

MORE ON:KARINA VETRANO​

• Nearly 40K people petition DA to reopen gruesome case of murdered Queens jogger​

• Slain jogger Karina Vetrano’s friend gets death threat on Instagram​

• Mom of violent killer says Vetrano family ‘broke my heart’ during court statement​

• Violent fiend gets life without parole for savage killing of Karina Vetrano​

Chanel Lewis — the man serving a life sentence for the murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano — should have his conviction overturned because cops used an unfair “racial dragnet” targeting black men before landing on him as their prime suspect, his attorneys argued in new court papers.
Prosecutors allegedly failed to disclose the use of the so-called dragnet — in which the NYPD conducted DNA testing on “hundreds of black men” — before arresting Lewis, now 27, in the high-profile 2016 slaying, according to the documents filed Monday.
Detectives used the controversial testing method all because Parabon Nanolabs — “an outside, unlicensed lab” — had concluded “that the DNA profile of the perpetrator generated from the crime scene belonged to a black man,” Lewis’ lawyers, Ronald Kuby and Rhidaya Trivedi, wrote in the filing.
“How this racial dragnet led specifically to Chanel Lewis’ door remains unknown,” the filing states.
The alleged use of the dragnet was not disclosed to the defense team ahead of trial, the attorneys claimed.
In fact, it only came to light in a whistleblower letter that surfaced before jury deliberations at the second trial where Lewis was ultimately convicted — following a hung jury at the first trial, according to the court document.
The murder conviction for Chanel Lewis should be overturned in the 2016 killing of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano, lawyers argue.Gregory P. Mango
Parabon had issued a report to the NYPD after conducting biogeographic ancestry and phenotyping analysis on DNA lifted from the 30-year-old Howard Beach jogger’s cellhone, the filing alleges.
Since-resigned prosecutor Brad Leventhal allegedly “intentionally” hid Parabon’s report — and the “paper trail” showing that the NYPD used the company that wasn’t licensed in New York state, the court papers claim.
Testimony from detectives at trial “was carefully tailored to maintain a shroud of secrecy over the racial dragnet,” — with one detective allegedly lying at least once on the stand, the filing claims.
Lewis’ lawyers claim that DNA methods were hidden at trial and deprived Lewis of a fair trial.karina.vee/Instagram
Lewis’ right to a fair trial was violated and had the new evidence come out earlier he may not have been convicted, his attorneys argued.
“While the truth of what happened in this case remains unknown, what is known is that the truth has been willfully, intentionally, and maliciously suppressed, in order to guarantee a conviction,” the filing charges.
The move to vacate Lewis’ 2019 conviction and request a new trial is coming years later r because “it took a very long time to confirm that the NYPD used Parabon and it’s racial phenotyping in the Lewis investigation,” Kuby told The Post on Tuesday.
Lewis’ attorneys also spent a long time trying to get the necessary documents from the Queens District Attorney’s Office “to no avail,” Kuby claimed.
Lewis is currently serving a life sentence.Charles Eckert
In 2021, nearly 40,000 signed a petition demanding that the DA’s office review the case claiming the trial was riddled with issues, including a history of prosecutorial misconduct by Leventhal, who resigned amid the allegations.
93
What do you think? Post a comment.
“The NYPD engaged in a massive racial dragnet, inspired by a DNA lab not permitted to work in NYC, then worked with a now-disgraced prosecutor to conceal it, hide the documents that would have proven it, and then promoted a phony story about dogged police work and good luck to conceal the intensely racist nature of the investigation,” Kuby said in a statement.
Queens DA Melinda Katz’s office, which prosecuted the case, said: “we do not comment on pending litigation.”

 

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Judge tosses bid to vacate conviction in 2016 Howard Beach jogger murder​

Chanel Lewis (main) sits for his re-trial at Queens County Criminal Court on March 25, 2019. (Pool; NYDN)

By Rocco Parascandola | rparascandola@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News and Thomas Tracy | ttracy@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News
PUBLISHED: February 20, 2026 at 11:38 AM EST | UPDATED: February 20, 2026 at 4:12 PM EST
A Queens judge shot down a bid to vacate the conviction in the murder of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano, claiming allegations that an “improper racial dragnet” was used to track down a suspect didn’t play a direct role in the killer’s apprehension.

In court papers released late Thursday, Queens Supreme Court Judge Michael Aloise denied a motion to vacate the conviction of Chanel Lewis and order a new trial in the Vetrano murder.

Lewis’ attorney Ron Kuby alleged his client was linked to the killing after the NYPD used an unapproved lab to do racial phenotyping testing on evidence recovered from Vetrano’s body.

The testing conducted by Parabon NanoLab determined that the killer was of African descent and “led to a sweep of minority suspects prior to the testing of (Vetrano),” Kuby’s motion claimed.

“How this racial dragnet led specifically to Chanel Lewis’ door remains unknown; the fact that it did and that it was withheld is newly discovered, and undeniable,” the court papers allege. “Important questions remain about the reliability of DNA phenotyping and the methodologies employed by Parabon NanoLabs.”

Karina Vetrano
Court papers cited a 2019 story in the Daily News reporting 360 Black and Hispanic men previously questioned by police in Howard Beach “were harassed, surveilled and swabbed on questionable consent.”

“The arrest was immediately mythologized as dogged police work and good luck,” Kuby told The News in 2023 after filing his motion to have the conviction vacated. “The DA’s office and the police worked very hard to to make this look like it had nothing to do with race.”

“Usually when white people insist the the prosecution of Blacks has nothing to do with race, it’s always about that thing,” he said.

Aloise disagreed, claiming that, even if the racial dragnet allegations were true, Lewis’ wasn’t considered a suspect in Vetrano’s murder until “six months” after the phenotype testing was conducted.

Citing evidence brought out in trial, Aloise said NYPD Det. Lt. John Russo remembered seeing Lewis in the area where Vetrano was murdered a few days before the killing and that “he had odd behavior and odd attire for the weather on those dates,” which led to them questioning him as a suspect and getting his DNA, which matched the evidence left at the crime scene.

“Without sworn allegations connecting the defendant’s testing and arrest to the Parabon report, the defendant cannot establish that the report was specifically utilized in any way in the apprehension of this defendant and cannot establish a legal basis for his claim that he was illegally targeted as part of a racial dragnet,” Aloise noted, dismissing Kuby’s motion.

New York Police Department detectives escort Chanel Lewis, center, from the NYPD’s 107th Precinct stationhouse on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, in Queens. (James Keivom / New York Daily News)
Vetrano, 30, was sexually abused and killed as she went jogging in a park near her Howard Beach home on Aug. 2, 2016, with Lewis convicted and sentenced three years later to life without parole.

According to testimony at his trial, Lewis’ DNA was found on the victim’s body. His first prosecution ended with a hung jury before his conviction on April 1, 2019.

Critics of Virginia-based Parabon say private labs receive less scrutiny than public labs.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Friday “the evidence of Chanel Lewis’ guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.”

“Among all the other evidence presented at trial, the DNA evidence was credited by the jury and showed the presence of the defendant’s DNA on the victim’s neck and cell phone,” Katz said. “The profile is so rare that it is expected to be found in 1 in 6.8 trillion people. We continue to be prepared to litigate any challenges related to this conviction.”

Chanel Lewis found guilty of Karina Vetrano murder. The New York Daily News' front page on April 2, 2019.
Kuby said he plans to appeal Aloise’s conviction, noting that the judge should have granted a hearing before rendering a decision.

“Our motion was denied because we couldn’t prove our claim of a racial dragnet. But the court made sure of that because we could not a hearing,” Kuby said, noting that the Queens DA’s office has insisted the claim of a racial dragnet “is speculative.”

“But they have never denied the existence of a racial dragnet — just that it was speculative,” Kuby said.