NY – Judge Frees Man Convicted Of Killing Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger

Brooklyn, NY - A judge has freed a man convicted in the 1990 killing of a Brooklyn rabbi.

David Ranta’s murder conviction was vacated on Thursday with the support of prosecutors.

Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger was shot on Feb. 8, 1990, by a man fleeing a botched robbery. Thousands attended the funeral for the Hasidic rabbi.

A recent review by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office cast doubt on witness testimony and concluded detectives had mishandled aspects of the investigation.

The 58-year Ranta has been serving time in a Buffalo prison.

A statement below released by Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes to the media after the ruling:

“In April of 2011 I created the Conviction Integrity Unit to examine cases of possible wrongful convictions. I appointed Executive Assistant District Attorney John O’Mara, a seasoned veteran in our Office with 35 years’ experience.

“In the fall of 2011 Mr. O’Mara and I visited the Legal Aid Society, the Kings County Criminal Bar Association and the office of the Brooklyn Defender Services to announce our new initiative and to invite them to refer cases to us, in which newly discovered evidence could call convictions into question.

Michael Baum, Esq. of Brooklyn Defender Services told us that he believed that David Ranta was wrongfully convicted in 1991.

After conducting exhaustive investigation, Mr. O’Mara concluded that the foundation upon which Mr. Ranta’s conviction was based had been eroded and that no remaining evidence could lead to Mr. Ranta’s conviction, were he to be retried.  

Yesterday I dispatched Detective Investigators to Wende Correctional facility in Western New York to bring Mr. Ranta to Brooklyn, where he would appear and we would ask the Court to set aside his conviction and release him.