Dec 22, 2007 6:54 am US/Eastern
Tankleff Gets New Trial In 1988 Killing Of Parents
Investigator: Many On Both Sides Believe Him Innocent
Reporting
Lou Young
GARDEN CITY (CBS) ―
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Martin Tankleff was convicted in 1990 of killing his parents in their Belle Terre, Long Island home.
CBS
He's spent 17 years behind bars, but now a Long Island man convicted of killing his parents is getting a new trial.
Martin Tankleff was just 17 years old when he was accused of stabbing and beating his mom and dad to death in their Suffolk County home.
However, new evidence may set him free.
The court now says Tankleff deserves a new trial. The congratulatory cake that waits for him at his lawyer's Long Island office has been 20 years in the making.
Even though he was convicted of murdering his step-parents, nearly everyone in Tankleff's family believes in his innocence.
"We're just thrilled," one cousin told CBS 2 HD. "The decision is a decision that we thought should've happened a long, long time ago."
Tankleff said he slept through his parents' 1988 murder in Belle Terre. He signed a confession, he says out of fear, then recanted, but was convicted.
Investigator Jay Salpeter, a former city cop, tracked down the witnesses, including the confessed wheelman Glen Harris. It came together nearly a decade into his investigation.
"When I polygraphed him and he passed the polygraph, I knew we were on the beginning now," Salpeter said.
Another seven years and variety of witnesses began to paint the same picture. A former business partner in Florida and two killers with a then-teenaged kid left alive to take the rap.
Even an attorney for one of those now implicated by Tankleff's story supports the court decision.
Now 37, Tankleff remains behind bars upstate no longer convicted but still under indictment for his parents' murders. He has a bail hearing on Long Island on Monday -- Christmas Eve -- and could be out by New Year's.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office says it "respectfully disagrees with the court's decision."
Prosecutors have not decided if they will hold a new trial or file an appeal.
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