From Childhood Friends to Law School Colleagues, with a Detour to Prison

Marc Howard helped his childhood friend Marty Tankleff get out of prison; in turn Tankleff inspired Howard to embark on a legal career focused on exonerating wrongly imprisoned individuals.

Now, they are now teaching a course at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., "Making an Exoneree," where they examine the cases of incarcerated men they believe are innocent.

WNYC Host Jami Floyd spoke with Tankleff and Howard about their friendship, the class they teach together, and the $10 million settlement Tankleff won from Suffolk County last week for wrongful imprisonment.

"I am requesting the Suffolk County District Attorney, I want a meeting with him," said Tankleff, adding he wanted to present all the evidence they'd gathered over the years that point towards his parents' actual killers. "Not just for my sake, for my parents sake and for the community's sake."

Tankleff and Howard met each other in nursery school and grew up together on Long Island. They drifted apart after Tankleff was convicted in 1990 and then sent to prison. The conviction followed a false confession that Tankleff soon recanted.

The two reconnected 10 years later. Howard began to visit his old friend in prison and made him a promise.

"I'm going to law school to fight to get you out. I'm not gonna give up until you're home free," Howard said.

After the work of Howard, a group of pro bono attorneys, and other friends and family members, Tankleff eventually won his freedom in 2007.

Howard became a government and law professor who founded Georgetown's Prison and Justice Initiative, which was inspired by his work on Tankleff's case. Tankleff came on as an adjunct professor for the class where they dig into case files of people in prison who maintain their innocence. 

"Imagine taking a class on wrongful convictions that's co-taught by somebody who spent ... 6,338 days and nights in prison," Howard said. "We're dealing with real people's lives and their chances at freedom and Marty could not be here had people had not done that for him."

Tankleff continued, "The body of evidence we've developed in the last 10, 15 years, clearly and easily could get indictments and prosecute people and put those that we know are responsible for my parents deaths in prison."