Maxine Peterson was 43 when she was shot dead in her Queens kitchen on May 28, 1988, while holding her infant child. The killing was described at the time as an act of vengeance allegedly connected to a shooting carried out by her son earlier that same day.

Two men, Gary Steadman and Raymond Blair, were arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with Peterson’s death. The prosecution’s case relied heavily on one witness, Tony Malloy, whose history of drug use and prior felony convictions became a central point of attack by the defense.

Both Steadman and Blair were convicted, but the convictions were later overturned after it emerged that prosecutors had not fully disclosed a leniency agreement with Malloy, a potentially crucial undisclosed deal. The trial record was further marred when witness John Shelton was murdered in February 1990; an 18-year-old, Michael Bethea, was charged in Shelton’s killing.