Bronx prosecutors botched the probe that put two innocent people in prison for 17 years — and now they’re bungling efforts to free them.
Wrongly convicted Eric Glisson and Cathy Watkins will be locked up five more days because the DA’s Office can’t quickly obtain electronic monitoring bracelets for them.
A judge yesterday vacated Glisson and Watkins’ convictions in the 1995 slaying of livery driver Baithe Diop.
But the pair will stay behind bars at least until Wednesday, when the ankle bracelets are expected to be ready.
Glisson and Watkins will have to wear them for 90 days while the DA tries to come up with new evidence they killed Diop — even though a federal investigator has named two others as the real killers.
Law enforcement has used electronic monitoring devices for more than 25 years, but the bracelets are a puzzle to the Bronx DA’s Office, which says it’s never used them before.
“This is unprecedented. This isn’t a normal situation. We’re not in the ankle-bracelet business,” said Lisa Payne Wansley, a spokeswoman for Bronx DA Robert Johnson.
Glisson’s lawyer, Peter Cross, was miffed.
“Bail bondsmen have those bracelets in their office drawers and can have them to the court in a matter of hours,” he said.
Under orders signed by a judge yesterday, if the DA can’t find new evidence in 90 days, the charges will be formally dropped and Glisson and Watkins will walk free.
Their convictions unraveled over the summer after federal investigator John O’Malley found the details of Diop’s death matched a confession from two gang members.
O’Malley, a former Bronx homicide investigator, wrote an affidavit detailing his findings, which Glisson and Watkins used to seek their freedom.
The two men he believes killed Diop are free and living away from New York. They have pleaded guilty to federal charges in the slaying.