It has become fashionable of late to attack criminal convictions, regardless of the evidence, using “alleged” process errors.
The conviction of Chanel Lewis for the brutal 2016 sexual abuse and murder of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano is just such a case.
In a 65-page court brief filed on Monday, Lewis’ defense attorney, Ron Kuby, fired yet another meaningless salvo at the conviction.
Some journalists immediately took up the claims in Kuby’s papers, calling the DNA lab that did some of the testing an “outside, unlicensed” lab, decrying the police tactics as a “racial dragnet” and calling into question the conviction reached by a Queens jury in 2019.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office, given just a few hours to comment on the 65-page filing, declined to “comment on pending litigation,” and the DNA lab had not been heard from “at press time.”
Let’s start with the basics: Chanel Lewis murdered Karina Vetrano.
His DNA was found on her neck (she was strangled), under her fingernails (she fought her attacker), and on her cellphone (which had been tossed into the weeds by her killer).