Holocaust victim

Martin Tankleff was wrongly convicted of murdering his parents in 1990 and was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

While behind bars, he studied law, continued fighting to prove his innocence, and eventually had his conviction overturned in 2007.

He later became a lawyer and began helping other people who had also been wrongfully convicted.

On the morning of September 7, 1988, 17-year-old Martin woke up inside his family’s home on Long Island and discovered a horrifying scene.

His mother had been stabbed to death.

His father had been badly beaten and was still alive, but he was unconscious and in a coma.

Martin immediately called 911 for help.

However, within only a few hours, police began treating him as the main suspect.

During questioning, a detective told Martin that his father had woken up in the hospital and identified him as the person responsible for the attack.

That statement was completely false.

Martin’s father never woke up or spoke again.

He remained unconscious until he died five weeks later.

But Martin was only 17, deeply shocked, frightened, and confused by everything that had happened.

After being told that his father had accused him, Martin briefly questioned whether it was possible that he had committed the crime while sleeping and simply could not remember it.

Investigators treated those confused words as a confession.

Martin was arrested and charged with murdering both of his parents.

In 1990, he was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

There was no physical evidence connecting him to the killings.

No blood, fingerprints, weapon, or other forensic evidence proved that Martin had attacked his parents.

Years later, investigators and supporters focused on another possible suspect: Jerry Steuerman, a business partner of Martin’s father, Seymour Tankleff.

Steuerman reportedly owed Seymour more than $500,000.

The day after the murders, Steuerman left New York and traveled to California.

He later faked his own death and began using another identity.

From inside prison, Martin refused to stop fighting for his freedom.

He studied criminology and law so he could better understand his case and the legal system.

He filed appeal after appeal, even when each rejection made freedom seem less likely.

Private investigators working on his case eventually located witnesses who had important information but had never testified during the original trial.

New evidence slowly raised serious questions about Martin’s conviction and the way police had handled the investigation.

In December 2007, after spending 17 years and four months in prison, Martin’s conviction was overturned.

The charges against him were later completely dismissed.

After gaining his freedom, Martin did not walk away from the legal system that had failed him.

He enrolled in law school.

In 2014, he passed the bar examination and officially became an attorney.

Martin then began working as a criminal defense lawyer, with a special focus on wrongful convictions.

He used the knowledge gained during his own long fight for justice to help other innocent people trapped inside the prison system.

Martin Tankleff lost more than 17 years of his life for crimes he did not commit.

But after winning his freedom, he turned his painful experience into a mission to protect others from suffering the same injustice.

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