>> reporter: it's a place where they can celebrate a life, someone they loved. >> reporter: she's in heaven and she's in our hearts. >> reporter: their laci -- >> oh, how pretty. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." i literally got down on my knees and prayed to god. you know, i don't want to live. >> it was a crime that engulfed a city -- a young tourist murdered. he was stabbed trying to protect his mother. >> we had to get every one of them. >> seven teens convicted. one says he's innocent. >> you don't have to believe me. look at the facts in this case.

>> now we're doing just that, tracking down witnesses. >> he was shaking. >> he started crying. >> revisiting evidence. >> the most emotional day was reading the letter. >> is he telling the truth or lying to win his freedom? >> you made that up, didn't you. >> we're about to find out. >> this is a perry mason moment. >> right. she's a surprise to everyone. welcome to "dateline." in the late 1980s robberies, mugings, and even murders were a sad reality of life in new york city. then in 1990, a tourist was stabbed while trying to protect his family. the public demanded action and they got it. police made arrests and put suspects behind bars. but one of the men convicted said he wasn't there.

was an innocent man in jail, or was justice served? here's lester holt with "tipping point." in this city -- >> the murder of a utah man -- >> -- and in this story that transformed it -- >> a tourist killed trying to defend his family -- >> where does the truth live? does it live in what was said in this police station? >> all i saw him was taking the knife. >> or what was seen on this subway platform? >> clearly she sees one person that she recognizes. >> does it live in what was argued in this courtroom? >> you made that up, didn't you? >> no. >> or is the truth locked up in this prison? >> this is my cry for justice. >> you'll hear a judge decide where the truth will prevail. times square, bustling with tourists, vibrant and safe. except it wasn't always like this. new york was in turmoil. crime was out of control.

and then came the moment new yorkers said enough is enough, a murder of a young tourist on a manhattan subway platform just a few blocks from where i'm standing. it's a murder that would have consequences for this city and one man for the next quarter century. it was labor day weekend, 1990, a sunday. the u.s. open tennis tournament was in full swing and thousands of tourists had come to new york to see it. among them, brian watkins, a college student and tennis player from utah who was there along with his family. >> they were avid tennis fans. that's why they were here. >> journalism professor and writer bill hughes has followed the story for years. >> the tennis games were delayed that day, so they were out a bit later than they expected. >> as the watkins family headed out to dinner about 9:30 p.m., hughes said they made a fateful decision. >> they could have taken a cab, but they got on the subway.

>> that's where everything changed? >> that's where everything went south. >> a train pulled in unloading dozens of teenagers, all headed to a nearby dance club. >> it's just mayhem, kids all over. they exit the subway station. a small group of six to eight con degree gates near the top of the subway station. >> this particular group doesn't have the money for the cover judge? >> one of the men said we're going to grab a wallet. >> a group of teenagers went back downstairs where brian and his family were waiting on the platform for their train. >> they spot the watkins family and, bang, come out screaming and hollering. mr. watkins is knocked to the ground, punched, slashed with a box cutter. mrs. watkins is grabbed from behind, hunched over and someone kicks her in the face. somebody yells we've got it, let's go. >> as the group took off, brian watkins ran after them. one of the attackers, gary morales, had a knife. he realizes brian is right behind him.

>> if you're brian and i'm morales, he goes like this -- >> swings. >> and runs up the stairs. >> brian was stabbed and soon collapsed. >> can you send an ambulance. >> within minutes the 911 calls started coming in. brian's mother ran to a pay phone frantically calling for help. >> they stabbed him in the heart. he's dying. >> is he awake? >> no, he's not. he's unconscious. >> brian watkins died on the way to the hospital. he was just 22 years old. >> they were the targets of young killers. >> a tourist was stabbed to death. >> brian watkins was stabbed. >> how would you describe the media reaction to this murder? >> almost inducing a wave of panic. >> it is the terror of life in new york city. no one is safe from random violence. >> new york in 1990 was a city under siege, the worst year of crime in the city's history. >> i dress for the muggers. >> we have flat shoes so i can

run. >> and most terrifying was underground. >> very often our subway stations -- >> at the time the man responsible for policing the transit system was bill bratton. >> it was a terrifying time. there was no denying that crime was out of control. >> bratton is widely recognized as one of the nation's top cops. he's run the police departments of america's two largest cities including two tours as new york city's police commissioner. but just to put it in perspective, the murders of 1990, compare that to other years. >> there is no comparison. 1990, 243. last year over 300. >> it was the 585th homicide of the year. brian watkins murder, that the police commissioner says caused everyone to pay attention. >> i'm damn angry. of course i am. >> beginning with then mayor david dinkins. >> actually the headline around

that time, dave, do something. meaning, dave, do something about the horrific crime rate, and the brian watkins' stabbing was an accelerant that added to that whole fear. >> many of you got the call this is going to be a big one, a lot of eyes, a lot of press on this one. >> and the nature of the attack. the wolfpack. >> wolf pack. it was a name the media had given to another group of five teenagers who just the year before were arrested for brutally attacking a jogger in central park. bratton says law enforcement had a strategy in dealing with the so-called wolf packs. >> you had to get every one of them. you had to send out the message that the importance of not just arresting one or two but to get all of them. >> and that's exactly what police were doing in the watkins case. within 24 hours they had a group of teenagers in custody. but bratton says the impact of brian watkins' murder on new york didn't end with those

arrests. >> well, it was a seminal case for me. it allowed us to have a tipping point impact. >> the day after the murder, bratton received a call from the governor's office offering $40 million to help fight crime, money that would be used to hire thousands of new cops. and soon the city's crime rate began to drop. as for the suspects arrested in the watkins' case, all would be convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. but that's not even close to the end of the story. of the seven men convicted of this crime, one says he alone is unjustly paying the price for the murder that commissioner bratton says changed new york city. >> i had no involvement in this crime, so it's very, very important to me that my name is cleared. coming up, this man admits he was one of the teens at the subway station that night.

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it's been more than a quarter century since the murder of brian watkins and since this man, johnny hincapie, was locked up, one of seven men convicted

of the crime. but he insists he's innocent. >> i had no involvement in this crime, lester. i'm the only one that's claiming innocence. >> so what is johnny hincapie's story? in 2015 i went to speak with him at new york's fish kill correctional facility. hincapie took me back to the night of the crime. he had recently turned 18 and was on his way to a can't miss event, a party at the roseland ballroom in manhattan. >> well, there was a very popular deejay throwing a birthday party for himself, and everybody just wanted to be there. >> he explained that he and as many as 50 other teenagers took a subway, all headed to the same club. and how when the train arrived, he went upstairs to the street where he lost sight of a friend who was holding his money. he says he couldn't carry his cash because of the tight designer jeans he was wearing. >> it had numerous pockets on

them, but you couldn't really put your hands in them. >> so he said he went back down into the station to look for his friend. >> i go back down and i start hearing screaming. i see a crowd of people running toward me. >> did you have any idea what was happening on the platform? >> no. >> he said that's when he turned around and ran back upstairs to the street where he saw his friend. >> he asked me what was going on, and i told him i have no idea, but something seems to be happening over there. let's just go to roseland. >> hincapie says he danced until the wee hours, got a ride home and slept in. the next day hincapie and the rest of new york city awoke to a huge story. >> police lineups are still being conducteded inside the station house as they have been through most of the day. >> that was the first time i found out that something had happened. >> he claims he didn't think much of it until later that

night, 24 hours after the murder when detectives knocked on the hincapie door. >> and they say we need to see your son because we would like to ask him a question. >> hincapie's mother, maria, says she asked the detectives if her son needed a lawyer. >> they said how old is he? i said he just turned 18. so they told me he doesn't need a lawyer. the police told me he doesn't need a lawyer. >> hincapie's father, carlos, says he was shocked. he says johnny was a great kid, literally an altar boy. had he ever been in trouble with the law? >> never, never, never. >> that was about to change. police brought the hincapies' son to the precinct. what johnny didn't know detectives had spent the past 24 hours working the case and already had six suspects in custody who had confessed. >> and when was the robbery first planned? >> at the train station. >> 17-year-old gary morales,

nicknamed rock star, admitted he was the one who fatally stabbed brian in the chest. >> could you feel it entering his body? >> it just felt like a little push. >> police were pressing each suspect wanting to know who else was involved. one gave him hincapie's name and two others agreed. >> johnny hincapie. >> but another suspect said, no, hincapie was not there. >> they all needed money? >> no, johnny and kevin left. >> still, detectives wanted to find out themselves. >> they placed me inside of a room. there was a detective laying down on one of the bottom bunk beds smoking a cigarette. >> hincapie says he told the detective exactly what he did that night, but the detective didn't believe a word of it. >> he called me a liar, and he said he had all my friends in another room. he knew what happened. >> and then what happens? >> he's blowing smoke into my face from the cigarette that he's smoking. he slapped me in my face. he pulled my hair, and he kicked

me right down to the floor. >> what is he saying to you and what are you saying back? you tell me you didn't do this crime, so i'm assuming that you were very forceful in your denial. >> i'm telling him, listen, i'm innocent. >> hincapie says that's when the detective offered him a way out. >> he just said, listen, if you really, really want to go home, all you have to do is just memorize a story that i want you to say. i'll have you driven home immediately. >> and you believed him? >> yes, i did. >> hincapie says the detective led him to believe he was a witness not a suspect. >> so in my mind i'm thinking that if i'm a witness and i have to say that, yeah, i knew somebody had a knife and this is what i have to say to go home, then i'm going to do that. >> and that's what he did. hincapie sat in front of a video camera and told a story that he now says was scripted for him to an assistant district attorney. >> so it was a plan that all of

you made to get some money to go to roseland? >> yeah. >> okay. and were you part of that plan? >> yes, i was. i said, okay, that's it. it's over with. it's done with. i'm out of here. >> hincapie didn't nope but he had just written his arrest warrant. his confession was all police needed, a confession he gave to them three hours after he was picked up. it's not like you were in the interrogation room for hours and hours and hours. >> well, to me, it was a long time. i was scared. >> under the law, hin tappy and the six others were equally responsible even though one actually stabbed brian watkins. hincapie never went home again. and so for more than two decades his mother maria has made the same two-hour journey every other week since her son was sent away. >> it seems very hard because it's been 24 years, 24 birthdays, 24 christmases.

>> they say their visits are heartbreaking for both of them. >> how have you been able to hold on all these years? too many years. >> don't cry, mom. >> but maria says she's been crying out pleading for anyone to listen since that very first day her ordeal began. >> i wanted to scream to the world and tell the world my son is not guilty. please help me. >> little did she know help was on the way. >> i love you, okay? coming up, a new witness could reveal critical information about the night of the crime. but will he talk? >> he was shaking. he was visibly nervous. >> he started crying. >> when "dateline" continues. . with up to 50% more lotion, puffs bring soothing relief.

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i've been up and down throughout this whole incarceration. >> johnny hincapie is serving his 24th year behind bars for the 1990 murder of a young tourist on a subway platform in manhattan. his own words sealed his fate. >> so you could see that it was a knife? >> yeah. >> anybody looking at it, sounds like you're agreeing with it, that this is the story? >> but it wasn't. >> but a jury convicted him. and over the years hincapie couldn't get a court to hear his

case again. >> when all my appeals were finished, i literally got down on my knees, lester, and i told god, i don't want to be here anymore. i don't want to live. >> and then one day, 16 years into his prison sentence, a reporter heard about hincapie's claim of innocence. >> i cover crime. i get a lot of letters from prison inmates saying they're innocent. i never believed any of them. >> it was bill hughes. >> i met with johnny, listened to him for a couple hours, and i didn't believe him. i saw his confession, and i thought he was guilty. but i read the transcripts. i started to look into it. >> one of the first things he did was reach out to the other men convicted of this crime who were all still in prison. >> i interviewed gary morales, who actually stabbed brian watkins. i interviewed fernandez who slashed mr. watkins and both

admitted they were involved and said johnny was not. >> hughes also watched the original interrogation videos and for the first time he saw how the other suspect told cops that hincapie and another teen were not at the crime scene. >> they all needed money? >> no, johnny and kevin left. >> okay. >> hughes was intrigued, especially when he heard the suspect say a second time that hincapie was not involved. >> so there were eight people surrounding the -- >> no, no, six. >> there were six? okay. >> a tape hincapie's jury never saw. >> the more i investigated it, the more i came to believe that he might be telling me the truth. there is not a shred of forensic or physical evidence. >> but he confessed. not after hours of interrogation but after hours. >> like most people you can't fathom admitting something you didn't do. the truth is a skilled

interrogator could probably get you or i to admit we kidnapped the lindbergh baby. >> in the summer of 2010, hughes wrote an article about hincapie's story for a magazine called "city limits." >> i posted an article in the 20th anniversary of the murder, and nobody really cared. >> and the years continued to pass. >> we've been in prison with johnny for 23 years. >> our family. >> alex is johnny's younger brother. he was 15 when johnny was arrested. like his parents, he never believed his brother was guilty. >> it was just a shock to all of us, just watching my parents go through what they went through it was heartbreaking especially my dad going into my brother's room, kissing the pillow at night. that's been in my memory for many years. >> johnny?

>> lester. >> so this is home? >> no, i wouldn't call it home. my home is with my family on the outside. >> how old are you, johnny? >> i'm 42. >> you spent more than half your life behind bars? >> yes. it's terrible. being separated from your family, probably the worst thing. >> throughout his incarceration, hincapie has been a model prisoner. he's been involved with an inmate theater program. >> i don't know, i've been tired lately. >> and he took college courses offered at the prison, which is where he met a man by the name of bob dennison. >> he said, i don't know if you know anything about my case, once he started, i said of course i do. >> dennison is the former chairman of new york state's parole board. >> he showed me the article that bill hughes had written about him. >> did he tell you he was innocent? >> he did.

>> and you rolled your eyes? >> yeah, i did. but something about johnny stuck with me. >> so dennison decided to reach out to hughes, and all of a sudden hincapie had a former parole commissioner and a reporter teaming up to reinvestigate his case. >> we refer to ourselves as the right irish gum shoe squad. >> after nearly a year of searching, they found a witness, a man who said he knew the truth about johnny hincapie. >> we sat down in his kitchen. he was shaking. he was visibly nervous. >> sat at his table, and he started crying. >> and he took out a napkin, and he drew a map of the subway station. he remembered it as clear as if it was a recent event. >> they knew what this witness told them, if true, was a bombshell. but neither dennison nor hughes is a lawyer, so they got in touch with one. new york city's well-known civil rights attorney ron kuby.

>> and they said, look, we know there's no money to pay you, but he's an innocent guy. would you take the case? so i said yes. >> kuby's first task was to talk with that witness. his name is luis montero. >> luis montero offered proof that johnny did not commit the crime. but would the court agree? luis montero is about to tell a harrowing story. coming up -- >> all of a sudden i hear a commotion, screaming. >> did you see him go onto the platform? >> when "dateline" continues.

i'm cori coffin. here is what's happening, travel canceled for thousands this christmas holiday, surging omicron cases among flight crews grounded more than 3,700 flights according to flight aware.com.

more than 1,000 here in the u.s. meantime, extreme weather among parts of the west coast, flash flooding in san francisco believed to have killed two people trapped in a car, and in parts of washington and arizona, uncommon snowstorms forcing road closures lasting for several hours. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. decades after a tourist was murdered on a new york city subway platform, a potential bombshell. a new witness said he knew the truth, but could they get a judge to hear it? continuing with "tipping point" here is lester holt. the mystery of what happened on this subway platform so long ago took a new twist with a new witness named luis montero. this is a three-level subway station.

montero had been in the subway station during the crime and told attorney ron kuby a story that backed up johnny hincapie's account of the night brian watkins was stabbed. >> montero establishes not only did johnny not participate in the attack, he could not have participated in the attack. >> and that's established by what luis saw from where we're standing? >> that's right. >> based on montero's story, kuby filed a motion for a new hearing. and 24 years after he went away, hincapie got his wish. a manhattan supreme court judge agreed to reopen the case. >> the people of the state of new york versus johnny hincapie. >> in february of 2015, the hearing was called to order. for this proceeding the burden was on hincapie's attorneys, ron kuby and his co-counsel leah busby to convince judge eduardo padro that hincapie's conviction should be vacated.

who is your first witness? what is it you need to prove? >> luis montero was the first witness. and he was there to say he saw johnny at the time the crime took place, and johnny wasn't there. how long had you known mr. hincapie? >> maybe a year, give or take. >> montero testified he was also on the subway headed to the dance club. >> what was your relationship with mr. hincapie like? >> we knew each other, but we didn't know each other that good. >> in fact, they hadn't seen each other or spoken since then. to understand montero's story, it's important to understand how the subway station is laid out. the platform level is where the trains come in and where the crime took place. one long flight up from the platform is what's called the turnstile level. and then a final set of stairs gets you to the street. montero says that hincapie was

not on the platform when the crime happened but one flight up on that turnstile level with him. >> and what did you say to each other? >> he asked me for this other guy that came in, if i'd seen him. >> montero testified about specific details that matched hincapie's version of events. >> he was looking for the other guy because he supposedly had some money for him. >> another detail that matched hincapie's story, montero said hincapie began going down this up escalator which kuby says wasn't working at the time. seconds later, montero says, something caught his attention. >> all of a sudden, i hear a commotion, screaming. >> montero said that's when he saw hincapie turn around and run back up. if true, it means hincapie could not have been near the crime scene. >> did you see him go onto the platform? >> no. >> so why hadn't montero come

forward before now? kuby says montero was terrified because, as it turned out, he had been wrongfully accused of this very crime. >> he was held in jail for 18 months awaiting trial on this crime. he was identified by a member of the watkins family, and then they realized that watkins was not sure. 18 months later, they say luis montero, gosh, wrong guy. sorry about that. and they turned him loose. >> but to kuby, perhaps the most compelling part of montero's testimony, is how he says detectives tried to coerce a false confession from him, the very same thing hincapie says happened to him. just hit me around the kidneys and just slapped me every time i tell them something they didn't want to hear, they would just hit me. so that's when the nightmare started, you know.

>> but montero never cracked and maintained his innocence. kuby argued to the judge that what montero and hincapie say happened to them was easy to believe, that they were just two of many innocent people swept up by police at a time in new york history when crime was out of control. simply, in the wrong place in the wrong era. >> we have done some terrible, terrible things to innocent people in the course of fighting crime. >> case in point, kuby argued, the central park jogger case. that other so-called wolf pack. just like hincapie, those five teens had also confessed on tape, but they were exonerated in 2002 after dna cleared them. >> the defense now calls johnny hincapie. >> now the time had come for hincapie to tell his story under oath on the witness stand. something hincapie says his original trial attorney advised him not to do.

>> i wanted to take the stand. they told me the district attorney's office would basically just walk all over me because i had confessed. >> have a seat. >> he testified about how he left the station and then went back down to look for his friend who was holding his money. >> i gave him my wallet complete with all my money. >> and for the first time in a courtroom, he accused police of coercing a false confession from him. >> he slapped me in my face. he grabbed me by my hair. >> hincapie said he even had proof he tried to recant his confession almost immediately. jailhouse letters including one letter dated two days after his arrest telling the same story he tells today. please believe me. please help me. please talk to the judge and tell him that i'm telling the truth that the detective told me to say everything.

>> is there anything else you would like to add? >> i was just 18 years old when this happened. and i never had a chance. i never had an opportunity from the moment that i was arrested. not one chance. >> as the prosecution got ready to present its case, hincapie's mother, maria, leaned on her faith as she has from the beginning. >> you know, we've been separated for 24 years. i pray to god that johnny will be exonerated and we will be finally together. coming up, a last-minute twist could up-end the whole case. >> she's a surprise to me. she's a surprise to everyone. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪i want to break free♪ (vo) ready to break free? let's get away to a place where we can finally be free. ♪i've got to break free♪ (vo) plan your getaway with norwegian.

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manhattan assistant district attorneys eugene hurley and ben rosenberg didn't work in hincapie's original trial, but they say hincapie is a liar. to make their point, prosecutors cross-examine hincapie's witnesses starting with luis montero. assistant da ben rosenberg pointed out over the years details in montero's story have changed. >> that's what you swore to here, correct? >> yes, it's right there. >> your testimony here today is inaccurate. >> and in all these years montero never once mentioned seeing hincapie at all that night and that montero's wrongful arrest gave him a motive to lie. >> your experience in this case dating back 20-plus years, you're angry about it, aren't you. >> i'm not angry about it. i'm just scared.

>> you're still scared? >> yes. you kept me innocent for 18 years. you think i'm not scared of you guys? i'm petrified of you guys, you know. i can't even look at you guys. >> and you're angry? >> no, i'm not angry. i'm scared of you. >> prosecutors have their own witnesses to discredit hincapie's story, who did not want us to record their testimony. remember that friend who hincapie said was holding his money that night. >> i gave him my wallet complete with all my money. >> that friend's name is anthony nichols, and he testified that hincapie never gave him any money to hold. >> looking for anthony nichols is supposedly the whole predicate for the defendant going back into the subway station or going down to the platform. but mr. nichols says it didn't happen. >> i asked ron kuby about that. that friend tells the prosecution that johnny's lying, he never gave him money. how do you respond to that? >> well, that friend also told ms. busby, be admitted on the

stand, he told ms. busby he just didn't remember. >> he argued to the court that he was lying about something else. he says the escalator hincapie says he ran down was working just fine and it was moving up not down. >> he made the ridiculous claim he went down the up escalator. >> but perhaps the most dramatic part of the hearing was prosecutor hurley's cross-examination of johnny hincapie himself. hurley argued that hincapie was making up the whole story about falsely confessing. >> and it is the first time that you have ever alleged to a court that your confession was coerced by detective casey physically abusing you and making you memorize a story, is that correct? >> correct. >> the detective wasn't called to testify, but we tracked him down, and he denied ever abusing hincapie. hurley moved on to that letter. >> please believe me, please

help me. >> the one hincapie says he wrote to a lawyer two days after his arrest. hurley argued it wasn't really written back then. >> the date is on the letter. the date 1990 could have put in 2011, right? >> no. >> and that it was conveniently addressed to an attorney who is now dead. >> in fact, you waited for him to pass away to forge that letter to him, didn't you? >> not at all, sir. >> prosecutor hurley also ridiculed his story about being coerced into confessing by an abusive detective. >> he was wearing a t-shirt, smoking cigarettes, right? yes? >> yes. >> like some evil movie cop? >> yes. >> you made that up, didn't you. >> no. >> hurley argued that hincapie knew details about the crime not because he was coerced but because he was there. >> and he said, okay, let's get paid. >> you heard him say let's get paid? >> yeah. >> you know they said that because you were there and it was true? >> it was not true, mr. hurley. >> you were there and knew it was true, right? >> i wasn't.

>> the prosecution's case was over. hincapie's fate was now in the hands of the judge. and that's when ron kuby got a phone call. >> a new witness came forward who had never spoken to anybody before. >> this is your surprise witness? >> totally surprised. >> this is a perry mason moment. >> right. she's a surprise to me. she's a surprise to everyone. coming up, from out of the blue a new eyewitness who was on the platform the night of the murder. but which side will she help? >> she saw all of the attackers. she knew what johnny looked like. >> when "dateline" continues. we do it every night. every night. i live alone, but i still do it every night. right after dinner. definitely after meatloaf. like clockwork. do it! run your dishwasher with cascade platinum and save water. did you know an energy star certified dishwasher uses less than four gallons per cycle?

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witness testimony had just ended in john hincaple's hearing when his attorney notified the judge of an unexpected development. . >> amazingly enough during the course of the hearing itself, a new witness came forward, a young woman named mary lou santana. >> she realizes, oh, my god, he's still in prison, i can't believe it. >> santana said she knew

hincaple from her neighborhood. she was on the subway that night headed to the dance club and saw the robbery unfold. >> so she's standing here, and she sees them surrounding the watkins family, and at that point she starts to flee. >> as she ran past the attackers, she said she saw them all and was certain hincaple was not one of them. she said when she heard the news of hincaple's arrest back then, she even told her mother he was innocent, but santana said she was afraid to come forward. >> so she remained silent. >> silent. >> all these years. >> except for telling her mother. >> she doesn't get involved. she thinks, johnny wasn't there, the police will sort this out, and she sort of forgets about it. >> in 2015 santana took the stand but didn't want us to record her testimony. prosecutors attacked her credibility pointing out santana was convicted of a drug charge

back in the 1990s, and they argued just because she didn't see johnny doesn't mean he wasn't there. >> is it not possible she just missed seeing johnny in the confusion on the platform, that he was there and she just didn't notice it. >> absolutely impossible. she saw all of the attackers. she knew what johnny looked like, and johnny was not among them. >> it would now be up to the judge to decide a case that brought up pretty cal questions about police conduct in a different era. i asked bill bratton, then new york city's police commissioner about that. >> given the climate of the city, the political pressure, was there pressure to cast a wide net in these high-profile crimes? >> i don't think so. is there pressure? certainly. but as to the idea of going over the threshold, you can't break the law to enforce it. >> so does he think the police

crossed that threshold with johnny hincaple? >> if the court exonerates him, would you have different views on the watkins case? >> i don't have enough intimacy as to his particular case. i have no reason to not be supportive of the police investigation. >> on october 6, 2015, the day came for judge padro to announce his decision. hincaple's family and friends along with the media filed into manhattan's supreme court to hear his fate. in a packed courtroom, hincaple was clearly anxious as the judge began to read the decision. >> under the newly discovered evidence t court does find that the defense has won the burden of proof. the court is going to set aside convictions. >> the judge threw out hincaple's conviction. in the decision t judge said hincaple failed to prove that he

was actually innocent, but the judge did find hincaple's witnesses per situation irv enough to grant him a new trial, but that didn't mean he'd walk free just yet. prosecutor eugene hurley asked the judge to send hincaple back to prison while the d.a.'s office considered its options for appeal. >> during that time we ask that the defendant be remanded. >> ron cubie was steaming. >> let's not ignore mr. hincaple has been incarcerated for 25 years, one month, and as of today, three days. he's made a quarter century liberty down payment. >> the judge ultimately agreed to release hincaple on a token $1 bail. and in late 2015, the d.a. filed to appeal the judge's decision. prosecutors will now decide whether to retry hincaple, but that day --

>> the court will allow him -- >> please, please, you've got to come to order. >> hincaplehincaple's family wa overcome with emotion. he would be processed for release, but that would take nearly six hours. downstairs his mother maria waited. a quarter century prior, she stood in nearly the same spot in shock after her son was convicted of murder. now here she was again, this time with her family and a crush of reporters to witness her son's first steps into freedom. two brothers separated as teenagers now reunited as

middle-aged men. there were two other men among the crowd who hincaple wanted to fierngsd bill hughes and bob denison, the self-named irish guys gun shoe squad who launched his journey to freedom. >> i owe tremendous, tremendous love, energy, gratefulness to these two individuals. >> cheers, cheers. >> i'm so happy you're home. >> this looks good. >> his first meal, stuffed fillet of seoul. >> his 20-year-old niece who was born when he was in prison introduced johnny to his first selfie. >> i'm overwhelmed. >> we stepped outside to talk about what his first hours of freedom were like. >> i was thinking about how

beautiful it is to be free in new york city, watching the cars go by, the lights in the trees. there's a lot of nostalgia, and i'm grateful for it. >> so where does the truth liv in this story? >> up in the sky. >> for johnny hincaple, it lives in this moment. >> you've got to love it at the end of the day. you know, this is a dream come true. >> and one thing is for sure. the city henao rejoins is much different and much safer than the one he left behind more than two decades ago. in the end, the former police commissioner said that has a lot to do with what happened on that subway platform. >> i truly believe that the death of that young man was the propelling catalyst for the new york miracle that we experienced.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. thank you for watching ♪♪ home for the holidays at the people's house. ♪♪ >> happy holidays and merry christmas from our family to all of yours. we love you. thank you. >> merry christmas! >> the white house is the people's house. we understand that we're here for a limited time, and we're here because we have this incredible privilege of serving the american people and looking after them and what they are concerned about. >> it's as if when we light this tree, we light something within ourselves as well, and during the christmas season, i think most