Prosecutors are expected to ask a judge to free a man convicted in the 1990 killing of a Brooklyn rabbi.
David Ranta is due in court on Thursday afternoon for a judge to take up a defense motion to vacate his conviction. Prosecutors have told the judge they support the request.
The last time Ranta was a free man, he was a strapping 35-year-old father.
Ranta was convicted of murder after Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger was shot on Feb. 8, 1990 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The murder happened on Clymer Avenue as a suspect tried to rob a diamond courier, who escaped unharmed.
Werzberger was getting into his car when the suspect then grabbed him, shot him in the forehead, jumped in Werzberger's car and drove away.
Though no physical evidence linked Ranta to the crime, a jury convicted him based on witness testimony and circumstantial evidence. Ranta fit the wanted man's description of being blond and athletic.
"They used perjured testimony, it was clear," said defense attorney Michael Baum. "They used a parade of crack heads and thieves to say whatever they had to."
But a review in 2011 by a new unit of the Brooklyn DA's office cast doubt on witness testimony and concluded detectives had mishandled aspects of the investigation.
One witness told investigators he remembers orders by detectives during a line up, advising: "pick the guy with the big nose."
"It tells me we were right all along," Baum said. "David was innocent."
Prosecutors believe the real killer died in a car crash two months after the murder. That man's wife has provided information and other witnesses have recanted.
Community spokesman Issac Abraham said he heard the fatal shot. He is married to the rabbi's cousin and was stunned by the development.
"That is just unbelievable, that a botched robbery and murder because a botched prosecution," he said.
The 58-year Ranta has maintained his innocence from the beginning. He has been serving time in a Buffalo prison.
David Ranta is due in court on Thursday afternoon for a judge to take up a defense motion to vacate his conviction. Prosecutors have told the judge they support the request.
The last time Ranta was a free man, he was a strapping 35-year-old father.
Ranta was convicted of murder after Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger was shot on Feb. 8, 1990 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The murder happened on Clymer Avenue as a suspect tried to rob a diamond courier, who escaped unharmed.
Werzberger was getting into his car when the suspect then grabbed him, shot him in the forehead, jumped in Werzberger's car and drove away.
Though no physical evidence linked Ranta to the crime, a jury convicted him based on witness testimony and circumstantial evidence. Ranta fit the wanted man's description of being blond and athletic.
"They used perjured testimony, it was clear," said defense attorney Michael Baum. "They used a parade of crack heads and thieves to say whatever they had to."
But a review in 2011 by a new unit of the Brooklyn DA's office cast doubt on witness testimony and concluded detectives had mishandled aspects of the investigation.
One witness told investigators he remembers orders by detectives during a line up, advising: "pick the guy with the big nose."
"It tells me we were right all along," Baum said. "David was innocent."
Prosecutors believe the real killer died in a car crash two months after the murder. That man's wife has provided information and other witnesses have recanted.
Community spokesman Issac Abraham said he heard the fatal shot. He is married to the rabbi's cousin and was stunned by the development.
"That is just unbelievable, that a botched robbery and murder because a botched prosecution," he said.
The 58-year Ranta has maintained his innocence from the beginning. He has been serving time in a Buffalo prison.
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