Man Falsely Imprisoned For Rabbi's Murder Finally Freed After 23 Years: Gothamist

22.3.13

Man Falsely Imprisoned For Rabbi's Murder Finally Freed After 23 Years: Gothamist: David Ranta, the man who served 23 years in prison for a Williamsburg rabbi's murder that he did not commit, has been freed. Ranta, 58, was convicted of shooting rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in the head during a botched robbery attempt at a Brooklyn jewelry store in February 1990.
But Ranta has always maintained his innocence, twice appealing the conviction from a trial that lacked any physical evidence. Ranta was a petty criminal before he was arrested for Werzberger's murder, and he was only identified by one witness in the first lineup. That witness, who was thirteen years old at the time, now says he was coached by NYPD detective Louis Scarcella to pick Ranta. Another witness, the jewelry store owner who got a good look at the killer's face, said Ranta was "100 percent not" the man who shot Werzberger, a leader in the neighborhood's Hasidic Satmar community.