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Accolades

New York Lawyer
February 15, 2008

By Thomas Adcock
New York Law Journal

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Reversing the murder conviction of Martin H. Tankleff took 12 years of tenacity by a legal team led by a Brooklyn prosecutor turned Long Island solo practitioner, with pro bono backup from attorneys at three large firms. The team - ex-prosecutor Bruce A. Barket of Garden City-based Barket & Angeli; partner Barry J. Pollack of Kelley Drye & Warren; partner Stephen L. Braga of Baker Botts in Washington, D.C.; and Jennifer M. O'Connor of WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. - was given the Gideon Champion of Justice Award by the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers during its annual dinner Jan. 31 in Manhattan. Mr. Tankleff, then 17, was charged in September 1988 with the murders of his parents, Arlene and Seymour Tankleff, whose bludgeoned bodies he discovered in their Belle Terre home. Despite questionable police investigation techniques and conflicts of interest in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, Mr. Tankleff, now 36, was found guilty in a jury trial. Motion for a second trial, based on newly discovered evidence that strongly implicated others responsible for the murders, was denied in March 2006 by a Suffolk County judge. The case was subsequently reviewed by the Appellate Division, Second Department. Late last year, the appellate court threw out the original conviction and granted a new trial. Mr. Tankleff was released from prison following a Dec. 27, 2007 bail hearing. On Jan. 2, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota announced he would not pursue a second trial. Governor Eliot Spitzer has appointed Benjamin E. Rosenberg, chief trial counsel under Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate the county's handling of the case. Mr. Rosenberg is scheduled to appear at a hearing today in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead before Justice Robert W. Doyle.