Wrongfully incarcerated man freed

[Hosakawa Tito]

after 22 years. Anthony Capozzi (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--amothersfaith0428apr28,0,6410092.story?)

How could the State ever compensate this man?

[Papewaio]

Imagine if he could have got the death sentence for the crimes... since it could have been totally in reverse where he was thought to be not only the rapist but the murderer to.

[InsaneApache]

A statutue of limitations for rape! ~:eek: Yikes!! :dizzy2:

[English assassin]

A minor point alongside the wrongful conviction, but I see the US joins the UK in the old parole catch 22 that you've got to admit the crime before you are eligible for parole.

I'm sure there is a lot to parole and rehabilitation that you have to be experienced in the area to understand, but I don't understand this. Surely it would have been possible to assess this guy's risk to women without needing him to confess? I mean, god forbid I should be in his situation, but if I was I could (and would) happily answer any question, do any role play, whatever, that would demonstrate that I didn't have rapist urges. Isn't that enough?

There have been similar cases in the UK and after a while you do wonder what the parole board are thinking. You have a guy in front of you who would have been released long ago, but for the fact that he insists he is innocent. What do they think he is thinking? Either he likes prison food, or he really thinks he is innocent.

[Hosakawa Tito]

That statute limitation on rapes has since been lifted because of this case and others, long overdue imo. This case will be a landmark one in regards to compensation for wrongful imprisonment, Anthony's Law, and has been brought up for legislative passage. It should also be the catalyst for changes in chain of evidence logistics, documentation & storage of said evidence, improved co-ordination between the courts, law enforcement and medical services involved in criminal evidence cases. How police conduct investigations involving eye-witness identifications and suspect line-ups needs to be changed also. Anthony was extremely unlucky to actually closely resemble the real rapist, the only difference was weight, Anthony was about 40lbs. heavier. The eye-witnesses, both rape victims, felt subconciously pressured to ID a perp. Imagine how awful they must feel now.
Two of the police investigators that worked on Anthony's case believed he did not do the crime. When the real rapist/murderer was finally caught 2 months ago, they researched and sought the long forgotten and misplaced DNA evidence from Anthony's case, and miraculously found it. Without their due diligence and the determination to do what's right; Anthony would still be in jail. This case and how they finally caught the real Bike Path Rapist will become a well studied criminal justice case, and probably a movie as well.

[KukriKhan]

How [much] could the State ever compensate this man?

$5,000 max (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/burden/etc/chart.html), for Federal wrongful incarceration. $100 per day if it happened in Cali. No limit in New York, according to that link.

[InsaneApache]

Five grand! Is that all? He'd get more than that flipping burgers for six months. :wall:

[Odin]

DNA evidence from Capozzi's alleged crimes _ which no one knew existed _ was located at Erie County Medical Center, the Buffalo hospital where the victims had been treated.

No one has been able to explain why law enforcement did not know of the hospital's large catalog of glass slides that had been part of victim rape kits dating from 1973. The cache came to light only after a police officer working other unsolved rapes, on a hunch, asked the hospital whether such evidence might exist.

"The DNA was not of Anthony Capozzi," Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark announced at a news conference March 28. "It was Altemio Sanchez."

from the story



How could the State ever compensate this man?

By incarcerating those invloved who overlooked this evidence, and didnt know it exsisted. Clearly this would indicate for me that the police at the time didnt do a complete job of researching the crimes. If they had they would have known that the hospital had this data.

That means even if DNA identification didnt exsist, the police/prosecuter did no do thier due diligence and research the entirety of the evidence of the case.

[Kralizec]

Five grand! Is that all?

He wasn't incarcerated for a federal crime, so fortunately no.