Was a Police Report Altered to Convict a Man for Murder? Inside a Woman's Quest to Free Her Brother

In 2013, Steven Odiase was convicted for the shooting death of 15-year-old Juan Perez in the Bronx. At the time, the only evidence against the 31-year-old Odiase were the words of a lone eyewitness, who admitted to being intoxicated at the time of the murder. Odiase was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Then, Odiase's younger sister, Kalimah Truesdale, set out to prove her brother's innocence. She scoured the scene of the crime and eventually found a woman who said that she saw the shooting. Most shockingly, the woman said she had already spoken to a detective at the time of the murder and described the shooter as a man not matching Odiase's description. However, there was no mention of the woman's testimony in the version of the police report that was presented to Steven Odiase's defense attorney. For more on the mystery of this altered police report, we speak with Jonathan Edelstein, one of the lawyers who represented Steven Odiase, and with Jennifer Gonnerman, a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her most recent piece is titled "A Woman's Quest to Prove Her Brother's Innocence Leads to a Discovery."