John Bunn was ordered a new trial in November 2026 after an evidentiary hearing revealed the evidence used to convict him was tainted. (Photos by Jesse Ward/for New York Daily News)

After spending 17 years behind bars and seven additional years on parole, a Brooklyn man broke down as a judge cleared him of wrongdoing in the murder of an off-duty corrections officer.

John Bunn was just 14 years old when he was wrongfully convicted in the August 1991 murder of a correction officer. The indictment was based on tainted evidence produced by disgraced ex-NYPD detective Louis Scarcella, The New York Daily News reported.  Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Shawn’Dya Simpson scrapped Bunn’s conviction in 2016 and ordered a new trial after an evidentiary hearing exposed Scarcella’s crooked ways.

Source: Judge Sheds Tears on the Bench After Exonerating Man Who Spent 17 Years In Prison on Wrongful Conviction