Nagee Green’s appeal was denied Jan. 14 in the 2016 murder case of a former Ithaca College student.
In 2017, Nagee Green was convicted of second-degree murder after stabbing and killing former Ithaca College student Anthony Nazaire and one count of second-degree assault after stabbing then-Ithaca College junior Rahiem Williams. The stabbings took place after an event at the Cornell University Omega Psi Phi fraternity Aug. 28, 2016. In Green’s original trial in November 2016, the jury convicted him of assault but was deadlocked on the murder charge. The murder conviction came in September 2017.
Green’s lawyers filed an appeal after his final sentencing Nov. 6, 2017 where he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and a New York State Supreme Court judge announced Jan. 14 that the original murder conviction from 2017 still stood.
During the appeal, a judge acknowledged the lack of DNA evidence and of a witness account of the stabbing. The judge also said that police had overstated evidence against Green during the original trial, but police were using a precedent that allowed them to use deceptive methods during questioning as long as the methods did not produce a false confession.
The case has drawn attention from local activists, and The Free Nagee Green Committee was created to counter the results of Green’s trial. The committee believes that the jury was biased, that Green’s confession to police was coerced and that there was no DNA evidence linking Green to the victims, according to the committee’s website. The Free Nagee Green Committee did not respond to The Ithacan’s requests for comment.
Matthew Van Houten, Tompkins County district attorney, said the committee’s website did not fully tell the truth and did not present facts correctly.
“When you are fed misinformation and led to believe that there’s been a violation of someone’s rights, you should protest,” Van Houten said. “Unfortunately, in this particular case, the information that is being fed to those activists is false. … That case was used for political purposes and for propaganda purposes, and it’s incredibly disrespectful to Anthony Nazaire and his family.”
Van Houten told the Ithaca Voice that Green was proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed the murder. Beyond a reasonable doubt is the burden of proof that is necessary to have a conviction in a criminal case.
