DAVID RANTA, 58, was convicted in 1991 of killing a prominent Hasidic rabbi, Chaskel Werzberger, following the failed robbery of a jewelry courier in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He was sentenced to 37 and a half years. He was released last week after prosecutors acknowledged that the evidence against Mr. Ranta had fallen apart over the years. A witness, who as a 13-year-old boy identified Mr. Ranta in a lineup, now said that he had been coached by a detective, Louis Scarcella.
On his second day of freedom after serving 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, David Ranta suffered a serious heart attack Friday night, his lawyer said.
See the entire NY Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/nyregion/man-freed-from-prison-has-a-heart-attack.html
The main causes for wrongful convictions were identified in a Buffalo News article* with the percentage of wrongful convictions that each cause effected:
(a) misidentification by eyewitnesses (75%),
(b) unvalidated forensic evidence (50%),
(c) lying government snitches (16%), and
(d) false confessions by juveniles and mentally challenged suspects (25%)
(a) misidentification by eyewitnesses (75%),
(b) unvalidated forensic evidence (50%),
(c) lying government snitches (16%), and
(d) false confessions by juveniles and mentally challenged suspects (25%)
Read more about wrongful convictions in the article, "I Didn't Do It, Your Honor!"
Repeat of paragraph 1: DAVID RANTA, 58, was convicted in 1991 of killing a prominent Hasidic rabbi, Chaskel Werzberger, following the failed robbery of a jewelry courier in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He was sentenced to 37 and a half years. He was released last week after prosecutors acknowledged that the evidence against Mr. Ranta had fallen apart over the years. A witness, who as a 13-year-old boy identified Mr. Ranta in a lineup, now said that he had been coached by a detective, Louis Scarcella.
