Sheldon Thomas, a 35-year-old man wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for 18 years, was released Thursday after Brooklyn's Conviction Review Unit found that his initial arrest was based on a witness identification error. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez vacated Thomas' conviction, noting that it was a "tragic example of a witness identification gone wrong". Thomas is the first person to be exonerated by the Conviction Review Unit since it was established in 2014 and is now free and reunited with his family.
