Jabbar Collins

Jabbar Collins is a commissioner on the New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption. He is a former adjunct professor at St. John’s Law School, and President of Horizon Research Services, a consulting firm providing legal research and writing services for appellate, civil rights and criminal defense attorneys. A frequent lecturer on criminal justice issues, Mr. Collins is also an instructor for Continuing Legal Education courses on the New York Freedom of Information Law, federal habeas corpus and post-conviction litigation.

In 1995, Mr. Collins was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 16 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2010, due largely to his own legal work. A federal judge dismissed all charges against him and barred a retrial, finding his conviction resulted from egregious prosecutorial misconduct. His resultant civil litigation exposed systemic misconduct and resulted in one of the largest wrongful conviction settlements in New York City history. While incarcerated, Mr. Collins worked as a legal research instructor and assisted several men in successfully challenging their convictions. His legal work following his exoneration resulted in several wrongfully convicted men being freed, including a man who served 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.