Martin Tankleff

Case record: Martin Tankleff

Background

Martin (“Marty”) Tankleff (born August 29, 1971) was a Long Island, New York resident who was convicted of murdering his wealthy parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff, on September 7, 1988.

Tankleff professed his innocence. He claimed he was pressured by detectives working the case to confess to the murders after extended questioning. The confession was admitted into evidence despite Tankleff’s claims that it was improperly coerced.

The offence

On September 7, 1988, Tankleff woke up on the first day of his senior year in high school to discover his mother and father brutally stabbed and bludgeoned: his mother, Arlene Tankleff, died, and his father, Seymour Tankleff, was unconscious but alive.

Tankleff called 911 and gave first-aid to his father.

Investigation

When police arrived, Tankleff immediately identified the likely suspect as his father’s bagel-store partner, who owed his father half a million dollars and had recently violently threatened his parents. Tankleff said this partner was the last guest to leave the Tankleff home the night before the murders.

A week after the attacks, as Seymour Tankleff lay unconscious in the hospital, the business partner would fake his own death, disguise himself and flee to California under an alias.

Suffolk County law enforcement was under investigation for corruption, including problems with coerced confessions, by the State Investigation Commission (SIC) on the order of Governor Mario Cuomo. The SIC’s report included a finding that the detective who interrogated Tankleff had perjured himself in a previous murder case.

Tankleff said the lead detective informed him during questioning that his father had come out of his coma and named Marty as his attacker. Tankleff recanted his confession almost immediately. Tankleff asserted that the confession was false and coerced by lead detective McCready, whom he said hand wrote it, and he said he refused to sign it.

Tankleff wondered whether he could have “blacked out,” and, with the encouragement of the detective, confessed to the murders and was ultimately convicted at age 19.

Arrest

No separate arrest details were provided beyond the interrogation described during the investigation after police arrived.

Trial

Tankleff was convicted of murdering his wealthy parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff, on September 7, 1988.

Tankleff was convicted and sentenced in 1990. He was sentenced to two terms of 25 years to life in prison in 1990.

The lead detective took Tankleff to the police station and began a hostile interrogation that would last for hours.

Tankleff was brought up to trust the police and the word of his father, and he said that when the detective faked a phone call and lied to him that his father had come to and identified him as the killer, he was led to wonder if he could have blacked out. Tankleff said only then did the detective read him his rights and draft a “confession,” which was unsigned and immediately recanted by Tankleff.

Seymour Tankleff died weeks later, without having regained consciousness.

Sentencing

In 1990, Tankleff was sentenced to two terms of 25 years to life in prison.

A later account also stated that he was sentenced to “50-years-to-life.”

He was released following a bail hearing on December 27, 2007.

Appeals

In 2004, Tankleff’s lawyers petitioned the county court for a new trial based on new evidence that Tankleff claimed showed that career criminals connected to Jerry Steuerman were the true murderers of his parents.

Tankleff also presented evidence, unrefuted by the district attorney, that the lead detective and Jerry Steuerman were acquaintances and business associates prior to the Tankleff murders, in contradiction to the detective’s testimony at Tankleff’s original trial.

Tankleff argued that the lead detective had perjured himself in a previous murder trial, citing a scathing report by the New York State Investigation Commission on corruption and misconduct in Suffolk County law enforcement.

On March 17, 2006, Suffolk County Judge Steven L. Braslow denied Tankleff’s motions for:

• a new trial,
• to vacate his previous conviction,
• to disqualify Suffolk County, New York’s District Attorney Thomas Spota from the case, and
• to grant access to DNA evidence that might support Tankleff’s claim of innocence.

The case was reviewed by the New York State Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department in Brooklyn, New York. The Innocence Project assisted his defense.

The New York Times reported that the Appellate Division of the NY Supreme Court vacated Tankleff’s conviction and granted a new trial on December 21, 2007.

Outcome

On December 21, 2007, the Appellate Court, Second Department, vacated Tankleff’s conviction and ordered his case back to Suffolk County for a retrial “to be conducted with all convenient speed.”

The ruling stated:

“It is abhorrent to our sense of justice and fair play to countenance the possibility that someone innocent of a crime may be incarcerated or otherwise punished for a crime which he or she did not commit,”

On December 27, 2007, Tankleff was released following a bail hearing.

On December 29, 2007, reporting said New York State began an official inquiry into Suffolk County law enforcement’s handling of the investigation into the 1988 murders of Arlene and Seymour Tankleff.

The inquiry began more than a year earlier when the State Investigation Commission started gathering legal documents in the long-disputed case. The inquiry was to be directed by a special counsel at the state commission, Joseph Kunzeman, a retired state appellate judge. The commission was taking special interest in the Tankleff case as a follow-up to its investigation of Suffolk County law enforcement in the 1980s, which found entrenched misconduct among the police and prosecutors. The commission had no enforcement powers and could refer evidence of crimes to the authorities or propose a special prosecutor.

On January 2, 2008, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota announced that Martin Tankleff would not face a retrial.

Other details

• Jerry Steuerman was identified as Seymour Tankleff’s business partner and as the person Tankleff claimed ordered his parents murdered.
• Tankleff contended that while Seymour Tankleff was in a coma, Steuerman changed his appearance, faked his death and fled to California.
• Tankleff’s contention included that detectives refused to consider other suspects from the beginning.
• A later report said Tankleff received $3.375 million from the state after settling his wrongful conviction lawsuit, and that the settlement was announced by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
• That report said Tankleff was attending Touro Law School and was scheduled to graduate in May.
• The later report said Tankleff was still suing Suffolk County and the detectives who investigated the case in a separate suit still pending in Federal Court.
• Tankleff said: “I am looking forward to my federal trial where I hope to expose the misconduct that caused my wrongful conviction so that it does not happen to anyone else,”
• That later account said an appeals court threw out the conviction in 2007 after evidence was uncovered suggesting a former business partner of Seymour Tankleff had a strong motive to kill him.
• That later account said Seymour Tankleff’s business partner in a bagel store, Jerry Steuerman, was questioned under oath for the federal lawsuit last year and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 140 times, according to court papers.
• Tankleff’s conviction history included his confession being admitted despite his claims it was improperly coerced, and that he refused to sign it.
• The case was presented by 48 Hours Mystery and was broadcast and updated on August 11, 2007.

Timeline

• September 7, 1988 — Seymour and Arlene Tankleff were stabbed and bludgeoned; Tankleff discovered them and called 911; his father was unconscious but alive.
• 1990 — Tankleff was convicted and sentenced to two terms of 25 years to life in prison.
• 2001 — Tankleff convinced a retired New York City homicide detective to conduct a reinvestigation.
• 2004 — Tankleff’s lawyers petitioned the county court for a new trial.
• March 17, 2006 — Suffolk County Judge Steven L. Braslow denied Tankleff’s motions for a new trial, to vacate his conviction, to disqualify District Attorney Thomas Spota, and to grant access to DNA evidence.
• December 21, 2007 — The Appellate Court, Second Department, vacated Tankleff’s conviction and granted a new trial.
• December 27, 2007 — Tankleff was released following a bail hearing.
• December 29, 2007 — Reporting said New York State began an official inquiry into Suffolk County law enforcement’s handling of the investigation.
• January 2, 2008 — District Attorney Thomas J. Spota announced that Tankleff would not face a retrial.
• August 11, 2007 — 48 Hours Mystery broadcast and update.