In December 1993, the divided New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division affirmed Tankleff's conviction.
In January 1997, federal district Judge Thomas Collier Platt Jr. denied Tankleff's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
[3] In January 1998, that judgment was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, with Judge Guido Calabresi writing for the unanimous panel.
A 2003 appeal hearing presented new evidence from 20 witnesses who named his father's business partner as having planned, executed, and bragged about the murder.
[5][6] In December 2007, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division unanimously vacated Tankleff's conviction and sentence.
[8] From his staff, Cuomo selected Chief Trial Counsel Benjamin Rosenberg and veteran homicide prosecutor Thomas Schellhammer to re-investigate the case.