NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2007
Prime Suspect
Will New Evidence Give Marty Tankleff A Second Chance?
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Play CBS Video Video Moriarty's Reporter's Notebook Only On The Web: 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty talks about the case of Marty Tankleff, a Long Island teenager, who was convicted of murdering his parents.
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Tankleff is incarcerated at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. (CBS)
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Marty Tankleff was a teenager when he confessed to killing his parents. (CBS/48 Hours)
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Interactive Under The Gun Learn more about some interrogation techniques used by police.
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Interactive Forensics 101 Find out more about forensics, DNA and some cases in which DNA has made a difference.
"When they returned to the car, were you aware of what happened?" Moriarty asks.
"I knew something happened," Harris recalls. "Their demeanor, their behavior, it wasn't normal."
Asked what his feelings were, Harris says, "That something more than a burglary happened. Usually when you commit a burglary there's proceeds of something and that wasn't there."
Asked what Creedon and Kent's demeanor was, Harris says, "Extremely nervous, winded. Creedon's anxiousness to get out of there."
Harris says he later watched Peter Kent burning his clothes and when he heard about the Tankleff murders, he put two and two together but kept quiet.
"I had no right being up there," says Harris. "I was using drugs, I was just out on parole."
Creedon reportedly told other people he was involved in the crime, although today, both he and Peter Kent deny it. But Glenn Harris took — and passed — a polygraph arranged by Marty's investigator, Jay Salpeter.
What's more, Salpeter says Joe Creedon is linked to the man that the police had always dismissed as a possible suspect: Jerry Steuerman.
"This is not a random hit," says Salpeter.
Steuerman, the bagel shop owner who was heavily in debt to Seymour Tankleff, was the last person to leave the poker game before the murders, and while Creedon denies knowing Jerry Steuerman, he was well acquainted with Jerry's son, Todd, a convicted drug dealer.
"My scenario is that Seymour is sitting at the desk. Jerry Steuerman is talking to him keeping Seymour's attention on Jerry," says Salpeter. "At this point, behind Seymour, coming through the door, Joe Creedon, Peter Kent … and they took Seymour out and then went for Mrs. Tankleff."
Jerry Steurerman now lives in an upscale community in Boca Raton, Fla. He refused to talk to 48 Hours but both he and his son, Todd, deny they had anything to do with the Tankleff murders.
The discovery of new evidence is a major break for Marty. He has been granted a hearing. If the judge, at that hearing, finds that the new evidence would have caused the original jury to vote a different way, Marty will get a new trial and have a real shot at winning his freedom.
"This is the first time that the truth is gonna be coming out in the courtroom, and we're gonna be bringing in the people to give us the truth," says Salpeter.
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Someone asked about DNA. I believe that there actually is DNA available, but the judge has suppressed it and refuses to allow it to be tested because of a technicality. Others know the details better than I do on this.
As for the DA being "stupid," that is unfair. Before he was elected, he used to say that he believed Marty to be innocent. He was right then. But having been the defense attorney for Todd Steuerman AND for Detective McCready, both of whom were tried for serious offenses, he may be "partial" and unwilling to open up a case that would obviously lead to other guilty parties. It is easier to keep one innocent person in prison than it is to expose former defendants and call into question everything the police did back in those days.
I look forward to meeting Marty face to face, out of prison. God grant that that day come soon.
Jewel681
I have never before felt compelled to speak out for people that I%u2019ve never met and mean nothing to me. However, I%u2019ve never known of a situation in which an assistant District Attorney so blatantly disregarded his responsibility to seek the truth.
I do not know whether Marty Tankleff is innocent or guilty of murdering his parents. However, it is abundantly clear that Leonard Lato is actually hindering the process of discovering who should pay for the horrible murder of the Tankleff%u2019s, by not allowing a new trial.
%u2022 The police never investigated anyone other than Tankleff
%u2022 Too many people, with too little ulterior motive are speaking up on behalf of Tankleff and against Creedon
%u2022 It is absurd not to give immunity to Glenn Harris and hear what he has to say about the gloves and his involvement
Whoever is found guilty by a jury, who has all of the new information and witnesses, should pay for the crime.
- by deborahcox05 August 12, 2007 1:12 AM EDT
- You know what you have to have for probably cause to arrest someone in the U.S.?
- Reply to this comment
See all 14 CommentsNOTHING!! The police do NOT have to investigate anything. That is the big joke about our system.
You know what an attorney told me once? Here you go:
If he and I had a meeting that morning and he had cut his face shaving, and for whatever reason he decided to give a sworn statement to the police that I had cut his face in an attack, the police would have probable cause to arrest me!
It is then my responsibility to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was innocent!
You are not innocent until proven guilty! You are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent!
Our justice system is the "just-us" system and the cops are out of control!
They are not here to serve and protect. They are all about getting a conviction - RIGHT OR WRONG!
This is my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!