Law360 (November 12, 2026, 7:00 PM EST) -- A divided Second Circuit panel affirmed a decision to free a man after he spent decades in prison for a Connecticut murder, holding that his trial attorney should have investigated the claims of an eyewitness who could have cleared him.

A three-judge panel's 2-1 published opinion Tuesday upheld habeas relief for Maleek Jones, who was released from prison in September 2023 after a federal judge threw out his 1995 conviction for the murder of Eddie Harp in New Haven. The panel agreed with the lower court that Jones' trial attorney, Leo Ahern, provided ineffective assistance when he failed to interview the only eyewitness who had no criminal record or ties to any of the three alleged shooters.

No physical evidence placed Jones at the crime scene, and at trial, the state leaned on the testimony of Tyrone Spears, a cooperating witness who confessed to shooting Harp outside Saint Raphael's Hospital with help from two men, including Jones, the opinion said. But a nurse at the hospital, Sheila McCray, said she saw only two shooters, and her descriptions did not match Jones.

"Despite these gold-plated leads to McCray, Ahern made no efforts to contact her or to explore what her testimony might look like," the majority wrote. "He did not call or visit or subpoena her. Her whereabouts were conspicuous as she was a resident of the New Haven area, had a Connecticut driver's license, and was employed as a nurse at the hospital."

The attorney was aware "that the investigating officers had ready access to McCray," and Jones asked Ahern to get in touch with her, the opinion said.

"Moreover, Jones asked him to call McCray and, at trial, Jones complained to the trial judge that no one had called McCray as a witness," it continued. "Despite all of this, Ahern did not contact her."

U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker wrote the opinion for the majority, joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Eunice C. Lee. They held that Ahern "straight-forwardly failed to provide effective representation, and Jones was prejudiced as a result."

U.S. Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan dissented, writing that "McCray was hardly a bombshell witness whose testimony would have upended the prosecution's theory of the case," arguing that her statements to police would not have helped Jones as much as he claims.

Jones sought federal habeas relief in 2019 after exhausting all options to fight his conviction and 65-year sentence at the state level. At the first habeas trial, Spears recanted his testimony against Jones, but the court determined his change of heart was not credible, the opinion said.

U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall found that McCray's testimony would have created reasonable doubt about Jones' guilt. Her decision also faulted the court's exclusion of testimony from Lee Bember, who was a friend of Spears, Jones and a third man named Gene "Pepper" John.

Bember would have testified that John confessed to the murder and said Spears was involved, but did not mention Jones, the majority wrote. The trial court called this inadmissible hearsay, but Judge Hall said that conclusion was incorrect under state law; the appellate panel did not rule on that issue.

Judge Sullivan's dissent said the majority "fails to faithfully give the state-court decision the tremendous deference that Congress and the Supreme Court require," citing the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and the 2021 high court decision in Mays v. Hines .

"Here, the record contains ample support for the conclusion that Jones's counsel made a strategic choice not to focus on McCray," Judge Sullivan said, noting that Ahern had access to McCray's eyewitness statements and a private investigator had expressed concern about conflicting statements.

"And since McCray only had a partial view of the incident, it was not unreasonable for counsel to conclude that a jury would attach little weight to her testimony were she to be called as a defense witness at trial," the dissent said.

Further, the notion that McCray saw two shooters is "by no means incompatible" with the state's theory that there were three, since McCray might not have seen one of them, Judge Sullivan wrote.

"After all, McCray herself acknowledged that she never saw anyone actually discharge a weapon," he said, pointing to her eventual testimony at Jones' second habeas trial in 2015.

Rather, McCray said she saw two men "taking off running after the shots," the judge wrote.

Counsel for Jones and representatives of the Connecticut Department of Correction and the Office of the Chief State's Attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

U.S. Circuit Judges Barrington D. Parker, Richard J. Sullivan and Eunice C. Lee sat on the panel for the Second Circuit.

Jones is represented by Alan Schoenfeld and Ryan Chabot of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.

Connecticut Commissioner of Correction Sharonda Carlos is represented by Nathan J. Buchok of the Office of the Chief State's Attorney, Appellate Bureau.

The case is Maleek Jones v. Sharonda Carlos et al., case number 23-7097, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

--Editing by Vaqas Asghar.

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