“We learned that the police approached our Mr. Lewis to obtain a DNA swab as part of a race-biased dragnet, which involved the swabbing of over 360 African-American men in Howard Beach and other neighboring sections of Brooklyn and Queens," the Legal Aid Society, which represents Lewis, claimed in a statement.
The Queens District Attorney office declined comment, saying prosecutors would respond in court.
Previously, prosecutors said that Lewis's DNA was found on Vetrano's body.
Lewis was arrested in February 2017 after officials linked him to DNA found under Vetrano’s fingernails and on her neck and phone. Robert Boyce, New York Police Department chief of detectives, said the break came after police went back through 911 calls and found one reporting a suspicious person in the area near the attack. They identified Lewis, who voluntarily agreed to a DNA swab, and the results matched the DNA found at the scene.
In his taped confession, Lewis told police that he was upset with a neighbor and that when he came across Vetrano on a secluded section of a marshland park, he “just lost it.” He said he beat and strangled her but did not molest her. “This girl jogging … and you know, one thing led to another,” he told detectives. “Hitting her and stuff like that.” He said he punched her five times and dragged her into the tall grass.
Sanford Rubenstein, a civil rights attorney, told CBS 2 that a judge may decide not to allow a hearing on the letter, considering the letter was unsigned and may not be legitimate.
The attempt to get a new hearing came after both the prosecution and defense rested their cases on Thursday in Lewis's retrial. The defense called no witnesses but said the burden of proof was on prosecutors.
“It doesn’t seem like we can make progress. We feel that we have exhausted all of our options,” the jury wrote.
Prosecutors in the retrial focused on how Lewis gave a confession to detectives that was captured on video. They also said the DNA evidence and confession were enough to convict him of murder.
Defense attorneys argued that the confession was coerced and that the evidence wasn't reliable.
If convicted, Lewis faces life in prison. New York state does not currently have the death penalty.