Exonerated Man Passes Bar Exam

Martin Tankleff found out this week that he passed the New York state bar exam. The achievement caps a stunning life reversal for Tankleff, now 45 years old, who was wrongly convicted of murdering his parents when he was 17, and spent the next 17 years in prison. His conviction was based largely on a confession written by detectives, which Tankleff refused to sign. In 2007, an appellate court overturned his conviction, ruling that a Suffolk County judge did not properly consider new evidence brought forth by Tankleff’s legal team. It implicated a man who owed Tankleff’s father money. The man faked his own death and fled under an assumed name after the murders. Tankleff was freed 10 years ago and graduated from Touro Law School. He is the vice president of Absolutely Innocent, a Manhattan nonprofit that works on behalf of wrongly convicted defendants. He also serves on the Innocence Project’s Exoneree Advisor Group.