You are reading

More Than 40,000 People Sign Petition Calling On DA Katz to Reopen the Case Against Chanel Lewis

Chanel Lewis (via petition)

July 14, 2021 By Allie Griffin

More than 40,000 people have signed a petition calling on Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz to reopen a case in which a Black man was convicted for the murder of a woman in Howard Beach.

The petition-signers believe that Chanel Lewis who was found guilty of the 2016 murder and sexual assault of 30-year-old Karina Vetrano was wrongfully convicted and is in fact innocent.

Supporters of Lewis and advocates from local nonprofits marched to the Queens District Attorney’s Office Tuesday and delivered the petition, which demands that the newly-formed Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) open an investigation into Lewis’ case.

“Katz has previously indicated that her office would ‘look at’ the case and ‘see how the conviction integrity unit feels about it’…,” the petition states. “While Melinda Katz’s office takes the time to determine how they ‘feel’ about evaluating whether they may have convicted the wrong person and violated Chanel Lewis’ legal rights, Lewis is suffering.”

They want Lewis, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole, to be released on bail during such an investigation.

Tiffany Cabán, a former candidate for Queens district attorney, attended the protest in support of Lewis Tuesday.

“For the first time the Queens DA’s Office has a CIU but that means nothing if the bounds of that unit uphold a system that provides cover for bad actors,” Cabán said at the protest.

A jury found Lewis, who was 22 at the time, guilty of the murder of Vetrano in 2019 during a second trial after his first trial ended in a hung jury.

Karina Vetrano (Facebook)

Vetrano was attacked, sexually assaulted and strangled to death as she went on a jog through a park near her home in Howard Beach on Aug. 2, 2016.

Prosecutors in the case said DNA evidence found on Vetrano’s body matched that of Lewis, but the defense said the DNA was improperly collected.

Supporters say that Lewis is not the killer. They believe his case was mishandled by the prosecution and have accused the NYPD of racial profiling.

Lewis — whom the petition describes as “intellectually disabled” — originally confessed to the crime before pleading not guilty in court. His supporters say his confession was coerced by police.

A spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s Office declined to comment about the case at this time.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Year in Review: Crimes that impacted the borough and shook the city in 2024

QNS is looking back at our top stories throughout 2024 as we look forward to 2025. In terms of crime, the borough was shaken by several high-profile murders, police shootings and drug gang takedowns, many of which shocked the entire city. Here are some of the top 2024 crime stories in Queens.

The city’s first homicide of the year went down in an Elmhurst karaoke bar

New York City’s first murder in 2024 occurred on New Year’s Day when a Manhattan bouncer stabbed two men outside an Elmhurst karaoke bar near 76th Street and Roosevelt Ave. just before 4 a.m. Torrance Holmes, 35, of Hamilton Heights, was arrested by detectives days later at his home and transported back to Queens to face justice.