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After 22 Years , Wrongfully Convicted Man to Be Freed

Anthony Capozzi is now 50 years old. He's been in prison for 22 years for a rape he didn't commit. DNA has proved his innocence and he is expected to be freed within two weeks.

DNA evidence at the time of Capozzi’s trial wasn’t even admissible in the courts, and D’Agostino had to contend with the testimony of three women who identified Capozzi as their assailant.

“Maybe one’s wrong, maybe two are wrong, but jurors sit there and say how can three people possibly be wrong?” he said. “They were all so positive it was him.”

The D.A. agrees Capozzi was wrongfully convicted.

Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark is expected to present Troutman DNA test results from the county’s crime lab. Those tests show that DNA in slides taken from the rape victims matches that of the man charged as the Bike Path Killer, Altemio Sanchez.

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  • Display: Sort:
    long time (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by zaitztheunconvicted on Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 08:32:03 PM EST
    It took a long time for this to be proven.  Maybe people need to give more to the innocence project or there needs to be tax-payer funded DNA reviews of certain types of convictions.  I'd help pay for some of it, but I have almost no extra money at this time.  When I have some extra millions, it could be one of my projects.

    diogenes (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by cpinva on Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 11:54:11 PM EST
    the problem with "eyewitness" identification is that is notorious for being wrong the majority of the time. this is especially true if the accused is a stranger, and of a different race, than the victim(s).

    our brain tells us "gee, these people saw this person, how could they be wrong?". and yet, they are, time and time again. not because they're lying, they truly believe it. that's the worst part; how'd you like to find out that your testimony put an innocent person in prison? now you have to live with both the assault on your person, and the knowledge that you're responsible, in part, for a horrible injustice.

    Hard Cases Make Bad Law (none / 0) (#2)
    by diogenes on Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 10:55:34 PM EST
    It's nice to have DNA, but many rape cases don't have it, and if this type of case means that juries won't convict based on witness testimony of several victims then this is not necessarily good news for victims of rape.

    I am a rape survivor (5.00 / 3) (#4)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 11:16:57 AM EST
    I must say that I would rather that an innocent man not be imprisoned for 22 years than I receive some kind of guarantee of some kind of justice.

    Parent