A Brooklyn man who said he was framed by a detective, which led to a wrongful murder conviction and more than 20 years of incarceration, has been cleared of the crime after prosecutors deemed the case's sole witness unreliable.

Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Mark Hale told Supreme Court Justice Raymond Guzman (See Profile) the prosecution could no longer stand by Derrick Hamilton's conviction for the 1991 shooting.

The lone eyewitness, Jewel Smith, was “as a whole unreliable, incredible, and for the most part untruthful,” said Hale, adding that using her as a witness violated Hamilton's due process rights.