A man wrongly convicted of killing a beloved Brooklyn rabbi is in the hospital two days after being freed from prison.
David Ranta, 58, spent 23 years in prison in the murder of Holocaust survivor Chaskel Werzberger. Werzberber was killed Feb. 8, 1990 during a botched diamond robbery.
Ranta was freed on Thursday. On Friday night he was admitted to an undisclosed hospital after suffering a severe heart attack, his lawyer
told the Daily News. Ranta survived, but is being held for further procedures.
SPECIAL: These 4 Things Happen Right Before a Heart Attack — Read More.
Despite having no physical evidence linking Ranta to the crime, he was convicted and sentenced to 37 years to life. The father of three maintained his innocence from the beginning. His case was reopened as part of a program to look at questionable convictions.
The district attorney found problems with tactics used by lead detective Louis Scarcella.
Witness Menachem Lieberman, who was 13 at the time, said Scarcella had told him to “pick the guy with the big nose” in a police lineup.
“This was something I carried with me,” Lieberman, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “Two years ago, I decided I have to get it off my chest.”
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