Jabbar Collins spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

He was 21 years old when he was convicted of murdering a Brooklyn rabbi in 1995. The case was built on shaky ground from the start. No physical evidence tied him to the crime. The prosecution’s star witnesses were coerced. Exculpatory evidence, evidence that pointed away from Collins and toward the truth, was withheld.

And yet, he was sentenced to life in prison.

What happened to Collins wasn’t a misstep. It was a calculated abuse of power. A textbook case of a prosecutor, Michael Vecchione, choosing conviction over justice, career over conscience, and control over human life. Vecchione intimidated witnesses, buried critical documents, and manufactured a case against a young man who had no way of fighting back.

And when the truth finally came out, when Collins, through sheer persistence and brilliance as a self-taught jailhouse lawyer, proved he was framed, no one in power was held accountable.

Not the prosecutor.

Not the police.

Not the system that let it happen.

His conviction was overturned in 2010. A federal judge called the misconduct “shameful.” The city eventually settled with Collins for 13 million dollars. But money doesn’t buy back time. It doesn’t erase 16 years in a cage. It doesn’t erase the silence of the courts, the excuses of the state, or the media’s willingness to move on once the headline faded.

Jabbar Collins was innocent. The prosecutor knew it. And the system protected the prosecutor.

Let that sit for a moment.

This is not a rare story. It’s just one of the few we know about.

The playbook is old. Pressure a witness. Suppress the evidence that doesn’t help you. Use fear instead of facts. Lean on a system that rewards wins, not integrity.

And when a man screams from a cell that he’s innocent, the machine drowns him out. Because to admit error would mean confronting something much darker. That sometimes, the people we trust to uphold the law are the very ones breaking it behind closed doors.

What happened to Collins is the perfect storm of prosecutorial misconduct and institutional apathy. And it’s a warning.

Because if the courts do not hold prosecutors accountable, if they allow Brady violations, witness coercion, and manipulation to be treated as minor blemishes instead of the constitutional crises they are, then anyone, anywhere, can be next.

And when it happens, the burden will fall on the wrongfully accused to prove their innocence from inside a cage while the architect of their downfall goes home at night.

Jabbar Collins proved his innocence. But he never should have had to.

Until prosecutors face consequences for breaking the law, the law will remain broken.

And the people who pay the price will never be the ones in the courtroom with the most power.

Criminal Case

People v. Jabbar Collins, Kings County Supreme Court, Indictment No. 2884/94. Collins was convicted in 1995 of second-degree murder and other charges related to the 1994 death of Rabbi Abraham Pollack. His conviction was later overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct, including witness coercion and suppression of exculpatory evidence.

Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit

Collins v. City of New York, 923 F. Supp. 2d 462 (E.D.N.Y. 2013). In this case, Collins sued the City of New York and several individuals, including Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione, alleging violations of his civil rights stemming from his wrongful conviction. The court allowed several of Collins’s claims to proceed, highlighting the serious nature of the alleged prosecutorial misconduct.