The Connecticut Legislature's Joint Committee on Judiciary voted Friday to compensate a local politician $5.7 million for 23 years he spent in prison after a murder conviction, overcoming objections from the victim's family and the concerns of some lawmakers that the evidence underlying Maceo "Troy" Streater's claim did not meet the necessary standard.

The committee's Republican ranking members questioned whether the New Haven alderman, who was ultimately pardoned, had "substantial evidence" of his innocence, citing the statute that governs wrongful incarceration awards. The committee nevertheless voted to advance Streater's award for consideration by the full General Assembly.

"This is a great day for the history of the state of Connecticut because it shows that our system can account for the wrongs of the past so they're never repeated again in the future," Streater's attorney, Alexander T. Taubes, told Law360.

He said that if the Legislature does not vote on the award before the end of its session on May 6, it will be confirmed by default.

Before the committee vote, State Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, said he has "the utmost faith and confidence" in Claims Commissioner Robert F. Shea Jr., who recommended the award in an April 2 final decision. But the lawmaker said the evidence in Streater's favor does not satisfy Conn. General Statutes Section 54-102uu.

"To my mind, 'substantial' is a large burden, and there's conflicting evidence here," Kissel said. "I feel very badly for this individual, if indeed he is innocent, but I don't feel that the evidence is 'substantial' enough for me to support the award, and for that reason I'll be voting no."

State Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, agreed with Kissel.

"It isn't 'preponderance' and it isn't 'probable cause.' It is clearly, under the statute, 'substantial evidence,'" Fishbein said. "I don't even think it meets the preponderance of the evidence standard. Does it tip the scale 51%?"

State Rep. Jack Fazzino, D-Berlin, the committee's vice chair, said substantial evidence is "a flexible standard" that is "a little bit more" than preponderance, but less than clear and convincing evidence.

Streater was convicted of murder for the 1990 shooting death of Terrance Gamble, 19, based on what he has said were false witness statements. His 1991 trial ended in a hung jury, but a new jury found him guilty in 1993, and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

After losing multiple appeals and habeas decisions, Streater was released in 2017 and pardoned in April 2022. He was elected to the New Haven Board of Alders in January 2023.

Gamble's mother, Joyce Gamble, testified briefly, telling lawmakers that courts repeatedly ruled against Streater.

"Lies is lies. The truth is the truth, and if the system's falling for lies, I'll say it again: Where is the justice?" she said. "It was proven that he was guilty."

The victim's sister, Dominique Nevers, told the committee in written testimony that there was no "definitive finding of wrongful conviction that would justify compensation." She argued that giving Streater the money "could undermine public confidence" in the justice system and the compensation process.

At the time of his arrest, Streater was a 26-year-old switchboard operator at a telephone company.

In an ongoing federal lawsuit filed in January 2024, he alleged that two of the detectives who worked on the Gamble case, Anthony DiLullo and Joseph Greene, "intimidated, coerced, and bribed witnesses to give false statements to convict innocent men of serious crimes, including murders, resulting in hundreds of years of wrongful imprisonment."

DiLullo's former spouse, a retired FBI agent who worked with the detective on a joint task force, supported Streater's claim of innocence in written testimony to the judiciary committee.

"What I want this committee to understand is this: the misconduct that led to Mr. Streater's wrongful conviction was not an isolated incident," Lisa Bull DiLullo wrote. "I was not surprised when I learned the details of what they did to the witnesses in Mr. Streater's case — threatening them, pressuring them, following them — because it was consistent with what I personally observed during my time working alongside and married to Detective DiLullo."

Taubes told Law360 that the criminal justice system of today "is based on forensic, scientific evidence. That wasn't always the case."

"There are people still in prison behind what these two detectives did," Taubes said. "We have, in such a small city of less than 150,000 people, close to two dozen confirmed wrongful convictions. It could fairly be called the wrongful conviction capital of America."

On Feb. 10, Shea, the claims commissioner, found that Streater should receive $5,752,798 for wrongful incarceration and $136,272 in educational allowances on the basis that his conviction was vacated, via a pardon, on grounds consistent with innocence. He wrote that even though the Board of Pardons and Paroles did not explain its decision on the record, the fact that Streater was pardoned meant the members "accepted" that he was innocent.

But at a Feb. 27 judiciary committee hearing, several lawmakers, the parole board's current chair, Jennifer Medina Zaccagnini, and a deputy attorney general took issue with a lack of evidence to support Shea's decision, according to written testimony that Taubes submitted Friday.

Zaccagnini told the committee in her written testimony that the board "commended" Streater's "post-conviction activity" and said its decision was about "rehabilitation and character, not a determination of innocence."

Shea withdrew the award, held another hearing, then submitted it again, this time without relying on Streater's pardon.

Instead, the new decision leans on statutory language that authorizes awards when "a conviction was vacated or reversed and there is substantial evidence of innocence, whether such evidence was available at the time of the investigation or trial or is newly discovered."

Shea's decision cited the fact that three key witnesses "have recanted their trial testimony and/or they stated that they were pressured by the police." He also pointed to the 2022 discovery of a memo written by a New Haven prosecutor in 1991 that questioned Greene's conduct in another case known as State v. Ham.

The Conviction Integrity Unit of the Chief State's Attorney's Office issued a report in 2022 about the Ham case and another known as State v. Valentine.

The report said Greene "was found to have excluded exculpatory evidence in the arrest warrant" in the Ham case, dooming the charges and leading to a civil verdict against the detective for false arrest and malicious prosecution. In the Valentine case, two witnesses recanted previous statements and testified at trial that Greene intimidated them, the report said.

On Friday, Fishbein questioned Shea about his reasoning and process, pointing to the 16 factors that he laid out in determining that substantial evidence favored Streater. Two of those factors, Fishbein said, were Streater's own declarations of innocence before the parole board in April 2022 and before the claims commissioner's office in March.

Shea's factors also included the testimony of a clergy member who said Streater was at his church on the night of the murder and an eyewitness who said she never saw Streater at the scene, along with the 1991 prosecutor memo and the 2022 CIU report.

"It's a combination of items of evidence that made me feel comfortable coming to this conclusion," Shea said.

Before voting against the award, Fishbein said he thinks "New Haven should be liable if there's anything here, but the easy place to go is the state."

"Is that the proper process and should my constituents be paying for their malfeasance?" he added. "The answer has to be no there."

Streater is represented by Alexander T. Taubes of Taubes Law.

The case is Streater v. State of Connecticut, claim number 27051, in the State of Connecticut Claims Commissioner's Office.

--Editing by Rich Mills.