“Sing Sing” actor JJ Velazquez exonerated after 23 years in prison for wrongful conviction: 'End of an error'

"This isn't a celebration," Velazquez told reporters. "This is an indictment of the system."

Sing Sing actor Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez has finally been exonerated after more than 23 years of being wrongfully imprisoned for a murder he did not commit.

The 48-year-old actor and activist, who recently starred in the Colman Domingo-fronted film, was convicted by trial in 1999 of shooting and killing retired police officer Albert Ward, amid a robbery in Velazquez’ Harlem gambling parlor. He was released from the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 2021, when he had his sentence commuted by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In the wake of regaining his freedom, Velazquez sought to clear his name. On Monday, that wish was fulfilled when Manhattan Judge Abraham Clott overturned his second-degree murder conviction.

In 2022, the Post-Conviction Justice Unit opened a reinvestigation into the case, where testing found that Velazquez’s DNA was absent from a mixture of DNA on the betting slip handled by the shooter. This could have impacted the jury’s consideration of other trial evidence, including Velazquez’s alibi, the fact that no evidence connected him to the crime, and that the eyewitnesses provided inconsistent descriptions.

Clott said that in light of the new DNA evidence, he would set aside Velazquez’s verdict, in a decision supported by Manhattan prosecutors.

Related: Colman Domingo and a cast of formerly incarcerated actors soar in stirring trailer for Sing Sing

Velazquez addressed the decision outside of the courthouse, where he wore a baseball cap bearing the phrase, “End of an error.”

He told reporters, "It is so easy to imprison someone on frail facts but the towing truth stands right behind us, waving its arms, warning of the terrible miscarriages of justice that’s about to go down. But nobody listens. We should not have a system where it is so much easier to imprison the poor than it is to free the innocent. It has always been this way, but it doesn't have to be, because we deserve better. Why? Because we are better."

He added, "This isn’t a celebration. This is an indictment of the system."

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Domingo, Velazquez's co-star in the A24 film, addressed the news in a statement to PEOPLE.

“This moves me to tears. It is his commitment to his own justice that justice was finally served. It came late but it came and JJ can lovingly, joyfully, purposefully live again,” said Domingo. “JJ is such an extraordinary human that advocates for others passionately and lovingly. It was my hope with our film Sing Sing that we humanize these incarcerated men and women and tell their stories and hopefully we change the hearts of people to see them as people.”

He added, “There are many JJ’s still fighting for their liberation of being wrongfully convicted and serving time.”

Since leaving prison, Velazquez continued the fight for not only his own exoneration, but widespread criminal justice reform. In October 2022, he met with President Joe Biden, who apologized on “behalf of all society” for his wrongful conviction. Velazquez is also a founding member of Voices From Within, an education initiative that addresses the epidemic of crime and incarceration directly through the voices of incarcerated people.

Velazquez was the subject of the NBC News Letters from Sing Sing podcast, and less than a year after his release from the titular prison, began filming Sing Sing. The A24 film follows John “Divine G” Whitfield (played by Domingo), a man who is imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he did not commit. He finds purpose, along with a group of other incarcerated men, through the prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. With the exception of Domingo, Paul Raci, and Sean San José, the majority of the cast — more than 85 percent — is made up of formerly incarcerated men, who are themselves alums of the RTA program.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.