Before Andre Brown can pursue his claim to innocence, he will fight to stay out of prison. The 48 year old faces the remaining 17 years from a double attempted murder sentence he was freed from after a successful ineffective assistance claim two years ago.
Brown spent 23 years out of a 40-year sentence in prison for a 1999 shooting which injured two men, leaving one victim paralyzed. During the original trial, his previous lawyer failed to mention a leg injury Brown was nursing when the shooting he was convicted for occured. The evidence would conflict with accounts of the perpetrator running after the victims.
The judge released him on his own recognizance, but his initial bid for innocence — which would have prevented reimprisonment — was unsuccessful. And the prosecution successfully questioned why nearly two decades passed before evidence of the leg injury surfaced.
Last winter, the courts reinstated the conviction. Brown previously prepared to surrender himself twice, but the Bronx District Attorney’s Office agreed to give his party more time, first in March, to wait out an emergency clemency petition to Gov. Kathy Hochul and then in April, to consider resentencing based on the ineffective assistance claim.
“That motion is going to be before the judge on May 16,” said Oscar Michelen, one of Brown’s lawyers. “The district attorney has the right to oppose that motion, and their papers would be due on May 9. We’re hoping that they will not oppose the motion, but rather will consent to the motion, or at the very least not take a position either way. We’re waiting to hear back [from] them as to what their position will actually be.”
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office confirmed the prosecutors would take the extension to review the resentencing request. If granted, the motion would ostensibly prevent Brown’s reimprisonment by reducing his 40-year sentence and applying his significant time served.
“On April 23, 2025, defense counsel filed a motion asserting that representation at the original sentencing hearing was inadequate,” said a Bronx District Attorney spokesperson over email. “This new claim does not focus on actual innocence. Instead, it concerns whether Andre Brown’s trial attorney failed to present mitigating evidence at sentencing. We agreed to adjourn the case to review the motion.”
Yet Brown and his attorneys say his claim to innocence remains the end game as they currently work on preventing reimprisonment. While their first attempt failed, they can refile a motion to vacate the conviction if new evidence comes up. Additionally, they can petition the Bronx D.A.’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which would streamline the process.
“The narrative has never changed,” said Brown over the phone. “The minute I walked into the precinct, I continued to [profess] my innocence and say to everyone that I did not commit this crime … we’re excavating the soil, continuously looking for new evidence, reaching out to more experts.”
Michelen and Brown’s other lawyer, Jeffrey Deskovic, have long maintained they only represent clients in wrongful convictions if they believe in their innocence claim and do not simply take cases based on administrative error. They said ineffective assistance was their third argument after they initially argued for Brown’s innocence as well as pointing to newly-discovered evidence. “But that’s not a technicality … we’re saying the omission that he did [by] not presenting Andre’s evidence directly ties into the innocence claim,” said Deskovic.
Their emergency clemency petition to the governor, focused more on Brown’s reentry after his prison sentence. Beyond his sterling after release, he also helped at-risk youth as a credible messenger and established a chess club and GED program.
The New York Times reported one of the shooting victims, O’Neil Virgo, died earlier this year. Virgo’s family reportedly stated that he was convinced Brown was the shooter and they opposed his 2022 release.
“We understand your pain, but I did not commit this crime,” responded Brown. “I was not that individual who caused your family that harm and caused your family that pain.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.