David Ranta NY Man Cleared After 23 Years In Prison

David Ranta NY Man Cleared After 23 Years In Prison

David Ranta NY Man Cleared After 23 Years In Prison. A New Yorker was freed Thursday after serving 23 years in prison for the murder of a Hasidic rabbi that the authorities now say he did not commit.

David Ranta, 58, spent 23 years in prison until the conviction integrity unit of the Brooklyn district attorney's office concluded after a year-long investigation that the case against him was fatally flawed.

"Sir, you are free to go," acting state Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik told Ranta at a Brooklyn courthouse as relatives, including his daughter who was an infant when he was jailed, erupted in tears and shouts of joy.

Prosecutors had joined Ranta's defense attorney, Pierre Sussman, in asking Cyrulnik to vacate Ranta's conviction "in the interest of justice."

Update: David Ranta has suffered a heart attack on his second day of freedom. Ranta's lawyer tells The New York Times the former inmate had a serious heart attack Friday night and is being treated at a New York hospital.