The wife, mother, sisters, children and grandchildren of Foster Thompson packed a Staten Island courtroom, expecting a judge would grant Thompson a new trial in a nearly 30-year-old murder case. But the judge refused to vacate Thompson's murder conviction. 

"We are all disappointed, but mostly for him," said Sandra Thompson, Foster Thompson's wife. "It's been a long journey." 

Thompson was convicted of fatally shooting a woman and attempting to murder a man during a botched robbery on Staten Island's north shore in 1992. He's served 27 years of a life sentence.

Defense attorney Abe George presented a videotape that he says shows a man known as "Jamaican Tony" confessing to being at the murder scene instead of Thompson.

The attorney also claimed prosecutors falsified evidence and hid materials to secure a conviction.

But after reviewing the submissions, Judge Alexander Jeong ruled there is "no clear and convincing evidence that the defendant is actually innocent."

"Clearly, if the judge is going to feel that the confession of the man that purported to commit the murder and an accomplice who came forward when she was 16 years old to testify here today that our client didn't do it wasn't good enough for this judge, we weren't going to get justice here in Staten Island," said defense attorney Abe George.

George said that when he first challenged the conviction, "A lot of folks were saying you’re not going to get justice on Staten Island and they all brought up sentiments of Eric Garner." Garner was the black Staten Island man placed in a chokehold and killed by poilice trying to arrest him for selling loose cigarettes. A grand jury declined to file criminal charges.  

"Staten Island is the worst. It is horrible," said Sharon Thompson, Foster Thompson's sister. "There's never gonna be justice out here. Never, ever."

The Staten Island district attorney's office issued a statement saying it found "insufficient credible evidence to support setting aside the jury's verdict." The office declined to comment on George's suggestion that Thompson was denied justice because of race. 

Thompson's lawyer says he'll appeal the judge's decision immediately and take the case to the appellate division, where he hopes to get before a judge in the next year and a half.