Regret the Error

An article on Jan. 3 about an announcement by the Suffolk County, N.Y., district attorney that he would not retry Martin Tankleff in the 1988 murders of his parents after his conviction was overturned by a state appellate court misquoted, in some copies, Judge Stephen Braslow of Suffolk County Court, who had refused Mr. Tankleff’s appeal, in which he cited new evidence and new witnesses. Judge Braslow called the new witnesses “a cavalcade of nefarious scoundrels” — not “characters.” (The error also appeared in articles on Dec. 22 about the voiding of the conviction and on Dec. 28 about Mr. Tankleff’s release.) The Jan. 3 article also misstated, in some copies, the length of time Mr. Tankleff was interrogated by the police and the timing of hearings before Judge Braslow. Mr. Tankleff was interrogated for about seven hours, not 18, and the hearings took place in 2004 and 2005, not last year. Link