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Purveyor

(29,876 posts) Fri Mar 22, 2013, 03:13 PM Mar 2013

Innocent Man Freed 23 Years After Murder of Hasidic Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger

A New York man convicted of killing a Hasidic rabbi more than two decades ago was freed on Thursday after his conviction was vacated as a miscarriage of justice.

David Ranta, 58, spent 23 years in prison until the conviction integrity unit of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office concluded after a year-long investigation that the case against him was fatally flawed.

“Sir, you are free to go,” acting state Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik told Ranta at a Brooklyn courthouse as relatives, including his daughter who was an infant when he was jailed, erupted in tears and shouts of joy.

Prosecutors had joined Ranta’s defense attorney, Pierre Sussman, in asking Cyrulnik to vacate Ranta’s conviction “in the interest of justice.”

“The evidence no longer establishes the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Assistant District Attorney John O’Mara, the chief of the conviction integrity unit.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/173588/innocent-man-freed--years-after-murder-of-hasidi/?p=all#ixzz2OIVVOVkd

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Innocent Man Freed 23 Years After Murder of Hasidic Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger (Original Post) Purveyor Mar 2013 OP

The most saddening thing about the whole story tech3149 Mar 2013 #1

tech3149

(4,452 posts)

1. The most saddening thing about the whole story

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Fri Mar 22, 2013, 03:50 PM

Mar 2013

Most people actually believe the fantasy about "equal justice for all". It is not now nor has it ever been anything but an aspiration. Imbalance of resources, prosecutorial misconduct, offering leniency on sentencing to avoid a more severe sentence, and so many other thing tilt that scale of justice beyond belief.

The only time I had the chance to serve on a jury, I was dismissed by the defense because I admitted to being in trouble as a juvie and took my punishment. I guess they felt I might actually evaluate the evidence presented.
Having worked around legal and law enforcement "professionals" I've seen the underside of our "justice" system. We may be better than some but it's a long way from equal justice.

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