Fordham University School of Law students in the Criminal Defense Clinic helped exonerate Keth Roberts for a murder charge from 1986. Roberts was exonerated on Oct. 3 by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D’Emic.
Roberts was released from prison in 1994 and had been fighting ever since to clear his name for a crime he did not commit.
Anushka Sarkar ’25, Nell Fitzgerald ’25, Sherry Gui ’25 and David Schwartz ’25 worked with Fordham Law adjunct professor Leonard Noisette to conduct legal research and provide counsel to Roberts.
“This is my first time doing criminal law work, and it’s been such a privilege to play a small role in Mr. Roberts’ exoneration,” Sarkar said. “He was serving time before I was born, and so it’s really shed a light on how long individuals and their families suffer when the state fails them.”
Though Roberts did not speak publicly about his exoneration, Noisette, who has been Roberts’ attorney for decades, said Roberts ends nearly 40 years of enduring the burden of a murder conviction.
Roberts served eight years in prison for a murder before accepting a plea deal in 1995 to a lower charge so he could stay at liberty after his original conviction was reversed on appeal.
The reinvestigation found that the sole eyewitness was not credible, his alibi was plausible and there was an inadequate police investigation.
“I think I ultimately do want to go into public service and maybe public defense,” Gui said. “So it’s really wonderful to see these kinds of outcomes and the real impact that a public defender’s work can have.”
Noisette said since Roberts release, he and his family have endured the hardships that come with living with a felony conviction.
“We celebrate finally getting the just — and long overdue — conclusion to this case. Mr. Roberts looks forward to moving on with life without the albatross of this wrongful conviction around his neck and its stain on his reputation,” Noisette said.
