Yesterday, the Suffolk District Attorney's office announced that Martin Tankleff would not face a new trial for the 1988 murder of his parents. Tankleff was found guilty of the murders in 1990 and served about 17 years in prison.
When Seymour and Arlene Tankleff were found beaten and stabbed in their home in Belle Terre on Long Island, suspicion focused on 17-year-old Martin. As Newsday reports, "Tricked into believing his father had awakened and accused him, Martin Tankleff gave a rambling confession that he later refused to sign and recanted."
Lawyers and investigators working for Tankleff had found evidence that suggested his father's former business associate Jerard Steuerman (who owed Seymoud Tankleff half a million and faked his own death), plus two men hired by Steurman, could have been behind the killings. That evidence compelled an appellate court to dismiss a judge's ruling that Tankleff could not be retried.
Suffolk County DA Thomas Spota explained that the charges were being dropped "because it is no longer possible to reasonably assert that the case against Tankleff would be successful.” Further, double jeopardy would make it hard to prosecute Tankleff on some charges in another trial.
Spota did say he would ask Governor Spitzer to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the new evidence, but he personally isn't convinced ("it's "not supported by credible evidence"), only saying, "The evidence clearly shows that both victims were intentionally murdered."
Tankleff and his lawyers were surprised by the announcement, perhaps believing that he would face a re-trial. The now 36-year-old free man said, 'It's finally here, 20 long years. I'm relieved but I never should've been charged in the first place."
