{"id":57879,"date":"2025-12-02T00:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/57879\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T00:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:10:17","slug":"bronx-man-freed-after-23-years-in-prison-for-attempted-murder-he-denies-committing-but-not-exonerated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/57879\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx man freed after 23 years in prison for attempted murder he denies committing, but not exonerated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A New York City man who spent more than two decades in prison for a crime he says he did not commit is officially free, but not exonerated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A judge ruled Monday that Andre Brown&#8217;s 23 years spent in prison count as the full sentence for his attempted murder conviction in the Bronx and he does not have to go back into lockup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Maintaining his innocence<\/p>\n<p>Brown, 48, was found guilty in a 1999 shooting that left two teenagers badly hurt and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but he denied committing the crime throughout his prison term.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the very first steps of me moving forward in my life without the fear of going back behind prison walls,&#8221; Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, Brown was released when a judge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/andre-brown-free-after-22-years-in-prison-for-bronx-murder-he-says-he-didnt-commit\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">overturned the conviction<\/a>, saying Brown&#8217;s lawyer at the time was ineffective and that new medical evidence showed Brown had a leg injury and could not have run like the gunman.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors appealed and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/andre-brown-vacated-conviction-return-to-prison\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a higher court reinstated Brown&#8217;s conviction<\/a>, saying the lawyer&#8217;s decision not to use that evidence might have been a strategy, not a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>The higher court&#8217;s ruling meant that Brown still had 17 years left to serve on paper, leaving him in limbo for the last three years as he was not immediately returned to prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Terror in my heart, just the thought process of losing my loved ones again,&#8221; Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t know which way this would go,&#8221; his attorney Oscar Michelen said.<\/p>\n<p>The judge on Monday ruled 23 years behind bars was enough and resentenced him to time served.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m able to be a father and husband now&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brown&#8217;s family, including his wife and two children, and supporters celebrated as he walked out of court, marking the end of a long legal battle in a case that Brown said cost him half of his life. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have my wife here. I have my son, my beautiful daughter, and I&#8217;m able to be a father and a husband now. I&#8217;m able to really enjoy what it means to be free, to breathe fresh air. Just to be able to have love given to me again without the confines of a wall,&#8221; Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mainly [I&#8217;m feeling] relief,&#8221; wife Tameka Brown said. &#8220;There&#8217;s been a lot of anxiety, a lot of sleepless nights.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No more tears. More smiles, more happy faces just in time for the holidays,&#8221; stepdaughter Trinity Soto said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brown and his attorneys said they will continue working to clear his name.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have no doubt about his innocence,&#8221; Michelen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brown said he plans to keep mentoring at-risk youth and helping others reenter society after prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n        More from CBS News\n      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City man who spent more than two decades in prison for a crime he says&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-57879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57879","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=57879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}