{"id":185423,"date":"2026-04-04T12:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185423\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T12:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:42:33","slug":"man-convicted-in-1979-slaying-of-brooklyn-rabbi-is-actually-innocent-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185423\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted in 1979 slaying of Brooklyn rabbi is ‘actually innocent,’ judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carl Miller served 30 years in prison after being convicted in 1980 0f murdering Rabbi David Okunov in Brooklyn. This week, a judge vacated his conviction, saying that Miller \u201cis actually innocent\u201d<\/a> of the crime.<\/p>\n

The ruling means that Okunov\u2019s murder, which shocked New York at the time, is unlikely ever to be solved. The rabbi, who had moved to the United States from the Soviet Union three years earlier, was killed while walking to morning prayer services in Crown Heights<\/a>. He was robbed of his prayer shawl and tefillin.<\/p>\n

Miller, who was 19 at the time, always maintained his innocence, and his conviction came as New York City\u2019s murder rate peaked, with more than seven times as many killings per year than today. In recent years, revelations that convictions from the era were based on coerced confessions or falsified evidence has led to the exoneration of dozens of people in Brooklyn alone<\/a>. The judge\u2019s declaration that Miller is innocent, rather than falsely convicted, meets a higher legal standard.<\/p>\n

Okunov\u2019s murder came amid rising tensions in Crown Heights, home to both a large Black community and the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Judaism. Thousands of Hasidic Orthodox Jews attended Okunov\u2019s funeral procession as it moved through the streets of the neighborhood, and the movement\u2019s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, reportedly cried as he spoke at Okunov\u2019s funeral. The two men had known each other in Russia in the early 20th century, and Okunov remained a Chabad adherent even when doing so was cause for arrest in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is particularly tragic that a man who came here to enjoy the free practice of his religion, who worked hard for his fellow immigrants, should be so wantonly and senselessly cut down,\u201d Gov. Hugh Carey said at the time. \u201cWe can only hope that the memory of his life, of his struggle for freedom and justice and mercy, will be cherished by every New Yorker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneerson called on his followers to build a school in Okunov\u2019s memory. The school, part of Chabad\u2019s largest yeshiva in Crown Heights, focused on educating boys from the Soviet Union who had not had access to Jewish education there.<\/p>\n

An organization that Okunov was involved in, Friends of Refugees in Eastern Europe or FREE, continues to provide services<\/a> in Crown Heights. Its affiliated synagogue held a kiddush in October<\/a> to mark the 46th anniversary of Okunov\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

Keep local Jewish news at the table. From the Seder plate to City Hall, we bring you the stories that connect our community. Your Passover gift ensures that independent journalism remains a vital part of Jewish life in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carl Miller served 30 years in prison after being convicted in 1980 0f murdering Rabbi David Okunov in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-185423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}