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Martin Tankleff may be free on bail soon

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY | zachary.dowdy@newsday.com

12:06 AM EST, December 24, 2007

Martin Tankleff in the visiting room of the Nassau County Jail in East Meadow in July 2004. (Newsday / Michael E. Ach)

Martin Tankleff's attorney said his client could go free as soon as three days after a bail hearing set for Suffolk County Court on Thursday -- a proceeding scheduled to take place before the same judge who last year refused to grant Tankleff a new trial.

It was Judge Stephen L. Braslow's March 2006 decision that a four-judge appellate panel unanimously reversed Friday in granting the former Belle Terre man a new trial.

The justices said new evidence Tankleff produced in a months-long evidentiary hearing could be enough to sway a jury to render a verdict different from the guilty finding that sent Tankleff to prison for more than 17 years.

Tankleff has been serving a 50-years-to-life sentence for the Sept. 7, 1988 murder of his parents, Arlene and Seymour Tankleff, who were attacked in their Belle Terre home.

Jurors convicted him in 1990.

In his March 2006 decision rejecting a new trial, Braslow referred to some of the witnesses who testified at a hearing on Tankleff's behalf as "nefarious scoundrels" because of their criminal pasts.

"After thoroughly reviewing this matter, this court reaches the same conclusion that the jury reached ... and every state appellate court and federal court that has reviewed the case, and that is that Martin Tankleff is guilty of murdering his parents," Braslow wrote.

Bruce Barket, the Garden City attorney who is representing Tankleff, said he expects his client to be released soon after the bail hearing.

"That's our anticipation," he said, adding that the terms of Tankleff's bail are still being worked out. "I'm not sure he's going to turn around and walk out the door right away because there are some procedural issues to work out, but we believe it will happen."

Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota has said he will not seek to hold Tankleff without bail while weighing whether to retry him.

"I think he should be commended for that," Barket said of Spota's position. "I think the only question I'm interested in is whether there's sufficient evidence that would warrant a new trial."