A man convicted of murder and sentenced to 22 years to life behind bars was released from jail due to a technicality.
Terrence Lewis was released from a maximum-security prison in Seneca County, New York after a judge ruled officials violated the federal Interstate Agreement on Detainer’s Law.
The law dictates an inmate in one jurisdiction who is facing an unrelated charge in another must be held and tried in that jurisdiction before being transported to the place of their original incarceration.
In the case of Lewis, he was charged with second-degree murder in New York but he was serving a sentence for a drug conviction in Pennsylvania and he was sent back there before his trial was held.
Because officials transported Lewis back to Pennsylvania before his New York murder trial concluded, the law requires the murder conviction to be thrown out of court.
The 31-year-old was let out in Seneca County over the rule, despite being convicted and sentenced in 2018, the Democrat & Chronicle reported.
He therefore won’t be convicted or serving his murder charge, following a fatal drive-by shooting of Johnny Washington, 29, in Rochester in 2015.
“It’s a tough, tough pill to swallow that someone gets a walk on a murder conviction because of a transport error,” said Kyle Steinebach, a former prosecutor with the Monroe District Attorney’s Office who handled Lewis’ case.
Judge Stephen Miller wrote in his ruling: “The harsh reality is that despite a jury of 12 members of our community determining, after hearing all of the evidence set before them, that defendant is guilty of the murder of Johnny C. Washington, this administrative jail decision made based on jail population and timing, not the law, unequivocally entitles defendant to dismissal of the murder in the second-degree indictment with prejudice under the exacting requirements of the anti-shuttling provisions of the IAD.”
The rule, passed by Congress in 1970, means a second jurisdiction must be dismissed if he’s not kept locale to where he’s charged before the trial and verdict returns.
Steineback and the DA’s office and Lewis’ defense attorney had asked the judge for Lewis to remain in New York during the murder trial, and it was granted at the time.
But somehow a mistake happened along the way and he was moved back to Pennsylvania.
Steineback told The Post: “How it happened, I don’t know.
“But someone made a mistake that means that someone who murdered somebody in our community is going to get off on a conviction.
“It shouldn’t be that hard to follow the rules.
“The judge ordered he stay. Why isn’t he staying?”
