Queens jogger killer Chanel Lewis should have conviction overturned because of NYPD ‘racial dragnet’ used in investigation, say attorneys

The conviction of the man serving a life sentence for the murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano should be overturned because police used a “racial dragnet” targeting black men, his lawyers argue in new lawsuits.

Chanel Lewis, 27, was convicted after two trials of the high-profile murder of 30-year-old Vetrano in August 2016. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

His lawyers now argue that prosecutors failed to disclose the use of a so-called “racial dragnet,” in which the NYPD conducted DNA testing on “hundreds of black men” prior to their arrest of Lewis, six months after the murder investigation.

The controversial testing method is said to have arisen because the lab — Parabon Nanolabs — had concluded that the perpetrator’s “DNA profile, generated at the crime scene, belonged to a black male,” lawyers Ronald Kuby and Rhidaya Trivedi wrote.

The filing claims it “remains unknown” how the “racial dragnet led specifically to Chanel Lewis’ doorstep.”

Karina Vetrano, 30, went missing on Aug. 2, 2016, after she was last seen jogging near her home in Howard Beach

The alleged use of the dragnet — a systematic search for someone, often a suspected criminal — was not disclosed to Lewis’s legal team prior to either trial.

Its use only came to light after a whistleblower letter surfaced prior to jury deliberations at Lewis’s second trial, according to the new filing.

The anonymous letter stated that police had pursued two white suspects before taking DNA samples from hundreds of black men and focusing on Lewis.

When the letter first became public, Kuby and Triveldi claimed the letter warned them of supposedly exculpatory evidence about other potential suspects that they say was withheld from them.

They further claimed that police coerced Lewis’s confession.

In a 2019 statement, the New York Police Department said the anonymous letter was “full of falsehoods and inaccuracies,” that the investigation was thorough and “the evidence clearly shows that Chanel Lewis is responsible for her death.”

Chief Queens assistant district attorney John Ryan called the case “gruesome.”

The closely watched murder case initially puzzled investigators, who for months couldn’t find anyone who matched the DNA found under the victim’s fingernails when she fought back.

Despite that DNA evidence and a taped confession, Lewis’ first trial ended in a hung jury.

Lewis’ lawyers repeatedly said during the 2019 retrial that the DNA evidence was suspicious and that his confession was coerced by detectives who exhausted him until he finally gave them what they wanted.

In addition, they claimed that the crime scene had been corrupted by several people, including Vetrano’s father, and therefore could not be trusted.

Phil Vetrano, Karina’s father, found her body face down in the weeds along a trail while helping police search for his daughter.

Vetrano’s family and supporters burst into applause when Lewis was found guilty on all counts in 2019

Two years ago, some 40,000 people signed a petition demanding that the prosecutor review Lewis’s case, as the trial was reportedly fraught with problems

In the new filing, the lawyers argue that their client’s right to a fair trial has been violated and that had the new evidence been available, he may not have been convicted.

“While the truth of what happened in this case remains unknown, what is known is that the truth was willfully, deliberately and maliciously suppressed to ensure a conviction,” the file reads.

His lawyers’ move to overturn the conviction and request a new trial was years overdue after it took the lawyers “a very long time to confirm that the NYPD used Parabon and its racial phenotyping in the Lewis investigation,” Kuby told the paper. New York After.

Two years ago, some 40,000 people signed a petition demanding that the district attorney’s office review Lewis’ case, arguing that the trial was fraught with problems.

In a statement, Kuby said: “The NYPD engaged in a massive racist dragnet inspired by a DNA lab banned from operating in New York, then teamed up with a now-disgraced prosecutor to cover it up and release the documents.” to hide who would have proved it. and then promoted a false narrative of hard-hitting police work and success to disguise the intensely racist nature of the investigation.”

Current Queens prosecutor Melissa Katz’s office said, “we don’t comment on pending litigation.”