Court Hearing Sought on Innocence Claim in "95 Bronx Killing Bronx prosecutors, saying that they cannot yet substantiate claims suggesting that five people were wrongfully convicted in the 1995 murder of a livery-cab driver, are declining to support a request that a court immediately vacate the convictions of two of the defendants. The office of the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, said in a court filing on Wednesday that "despite diligent efforts and an ongoing re-investigation, this office has yet to verify the information forming the crux of defendants" claim." The office asked that the court hold a fact-finding hearing on the matter. Lawyers for the two defendants, Eric Glisson and Cathy Watkins, recently asked that their convictions be lifted in light of recent findings by an investigator with the United States attorney's office in Manhattan, which revealed that two former gang members in the Bronx had confessed to the robbery and fatal shooting of the driver, Baithe Diop. The investigator, John O'Malley, said in a July affidavit that the two former gang members, who were cooperating with the federal government, confessed in 2003 to shooting a livery driver, who turned out to be Mr. Diop. At the time, the former gang members had been unable to identify the driver and were not certain that he had died. Mr. O'Malley made the connection only in May, when he received a letter from Mr. Glisson, an inmate at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y. Mr. Glisson claimed to have been wrongfully convicted in a killing that sounded similar to the case the former gang members had described. Mr. O'Malley presented his findings to Mr. Johnson's office in June. "Since becoming aware of the allegations contained in the O'Malley affidavit," Mr. Johnson's office said in the papers filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, "this office has been actively reinvestigating this case." But the effort has been "made significantly more difficult by the untimely death" of the trial prosecutor and the sole identifying eyewitness at trial, the office said. Moreover, the status of the former gang members, Gilbert Vega and Jose Rodriguez, as "protected" federal witnesses made it difficult to conduct "any meaningful interview, so that their accounts of the homicide may be verified," the office said. "Indeed, all the allegations are dependent upon the credibility of Vega and Rodriguez," Mr. Johnson's office added. Peter A. Cross, Mr. Glisson's lawyer, referring to the Bronx prosecutors, said, "We still believe it is possible that we will reach an agreement with them on a conditional disposition of the case that we hope will also be satisfactory to the court." Paul Casteleiro, who represents the other defendant, Cathy Watkins, said the request for a hearing was "a very clear recognition of the substantial merits of our claim."