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New York man marks second exoneration anniversary
Posted: October 10, 2008 3:40 pm
After spending two decades in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Scott Fappiano was exonerated on October 6, 2006. Tuesday marked his two-year anniversary.
Fappiano was convicted of a Brooklyn, New York, rape in 1983 and sentenced to 20-50 years in prison. The victim of the crime was the wife of a New York City police officer, and the officer witnessed the attack. While the victim identified Fappiano in a photo lineup and a subsequent lineup, the officer identified one of the lineup “fillers” as the perpetrator. (Fillers are the lineup participants who are not suspects.)
Fappiano was granted access to DNA testing in 1989, four years after he was convicted, but tests at the time were inconclusive. The Innocence Project accepted his case in 2003, and secured more advanced testing. The tests, conducted in 2005, proved that Fappiano could not have been the perpetrator. Greeting his family after his conviction was vacated in October of 2006, he said, "I missed having a family. I feel like I never left. Maybe I'm in shock. I feel like I could go on like tomorrow is just another day."
If the Innocence Project had been unable to locate evidence from the crime scene in 1983, Fappiano may never have been cleared. New York City has had a history of problems with evidence preservation; when Fappiano was exonerated, the Innocence Project had six open cases and 17 closed cases where evidence could not be found.
Find out if your state requires the preservation of evidence.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week
Brian Piszczeck, Ohio (Served 3 years, Exonerated 1994)
Douglas Echols, Georgia (Served 5 years, Exonerated 2002)
Samuel Scott, Georgia (Served 15 years, Exonerated 2002)
Kevin Byrd, Texas (Served 12 years, Exonerated 1997)
William Harris, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 1995)
Calvin Washington, Texas (Served 13 years, Exonerated 2001)
Tags: Kevin Byrd, Scott Fappiano
Hearing Tomorrow in NYC to Address Causes of Wrongful Conviction
Posted: February 12, 2009 2:50 pm
Three men who served a combined 58 years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit will testify tomorrow before a New York State Bar Association task force investigating the causes of wrongful convictions in the state. The group released a report last week that found identification procedures and government practices to be the two leading causes of wrongful convictions.
Among those testifying will be Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, the co-founders of the Innocence Project, and three exonerated Innocence Project clients: Scott Fappiano, Jeffrey Deskovic and Alan Newton.
Another hearing is scheduled for February 24 in Albany.
Read more about tomorrow’s event here.
Download the Bar Association report here.
Tags: Jeff Deskovic, Scott Fappiano, Alan Newton
Scott Fappiano's New Life
Posted: October 8, 2009
Three years ago this week - October 6, 2006 - Innocence Project client Scott Fappiano was exonerated after having served 21 years in prison for a Brookyn, NY, rape he didn't commit.
Since his release, Fappiano has built a new life. On October 18, he will be married to his fiancee Joanne, his girlfriend before he went to prison. He is planning to enroll next year in school to become a funeral director.
His ordeal began in 1983. An armed male broke into the Brooklyn home of an NYPD officer and his wife. The perpetrator instructed the woman to tie up her husband in the bed with a length of telephone wire, and he proceeded to rape her. The victim was taken to the hospital, where a rape kit was collected. Swabs from the kit tested positive for the presence of sperm, as did a pair of jogging pants worn by the victim after the attack.
The woman described her attacker to police as a white male of Italian descent, and was shown a series of photographs of individuals. She pointed to Fappiano as the attacker, and then chose him again in a live line-up in which several police officers stood in as "fillers." That same day her husband, the police officer, viewed a live line-up, too. He chose one of the fillers.
Fappiano was tried twice for this crime. Serology tests before trial showed the blood from a stained towel and a cigarette butt matched the victim's husband. Other tests were inconclusive. After the jury could not reach a verdict in his 1984 trial, he was tried again in 1985. He was convicted of rape, sodomy, burglary and sexual abuse and the court sentenced him to 20-50 years in prison.
The Innocence Project began representing Fappiano in 2003, but it took two years for the evidence from the case to turn up - including the jogging pants worn by the victim during the crime that could not be tested previously. DNA testing showed that while the sweatpants contained DNA that matched the woman's, the male DNA found did not match Fappiano's - nor did it match the victim's husband.
Fappiano is one of 13 New York exonerees whose wrongful convictions were caused in part by eyewitness misidentification. His case and others have led to a push for reforms to the way lineup procedures are conducted. Learn more about progress of these reforms in the recent Innocence Project report: "Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and How to Reduce the Chance of a Misidentification."
Other Exoneration Anniversaries this Week:
Leonard Callace, New York (Served 5.5 years, Exonerated 10/5/92)
Brian Piszczeck, Ohio (Served 3 years, Exonerated 1994)
Douglas Echols, Georgia (Served 5 years, Exonerated 2002)
Samuel Scott, Georgia (Served 15 years, Exonerated 2002)
Kevin Byrd, Texas (Served 12 years, Exonerated 1997)
William Harris, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 1995)
Calvin Washington, Texas (Served 13 years, Exonerated 2001)
Tags: Scott Fappiano
NYPD and Innocence Project Awarded Federal Funds to Identify Wrongful Convictions
Posted: September 25, 2012 4:15 pm
The New York City Police Department, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Innocence Project have been awarded a National Institute of Justice grant totaling $1.25 million to catalogue crime scene evidence so that those seeking to prove their innocence through DNA testing can more readily get access to evidence in their case. According to a study of cases closed by the Innocence Project from 1996 to 2006, 50% of New York City cases were closed due to lost or destroyed evidence. Nationally, the figure from the same study was 22% of cases closed.
The funds are awarded through the National Institute of Justice’s Kirk Bloodsworth’s Postconviction DNA Testing Assistance Program, which was established in 2004 by the Justice for All Act and will be distributed over two years beginning on October 1, 2012. Bloodsworth was the first American who received the death penalty to be freed by DNA evidence.
The inability to locate evidence has hampered the Innocence Project’s efforts to clear people convicted in New York City for years, reported The New York Times.
Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, said that his organization had sought evidence — typically semen samples or blood stains — from the Police Department “in a couple of dozen” old cases only to learn that the police “simply couldn’t find” the evidence in its warehouses.
Alan Newton, who was exonerated after serving 21 years for a rape and robbery he didn’t commit, had to wait 12 years before the evidence was finally found in his case. Scott Fappiano, who also served 21 years for a rape DNA proved he didn’t commit, had to endure two additional years in prison while law enforcement conducted an unsuccessful search for the evidence in his case. The evidence that cleared him was ultimately located in a private lab.
The funds received by the Innocence Project will pay for a new staff member to expedite review of approximately 800 cases of people convicted in New York City who are seeking to prove their innocence though DNA testing. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner will receive funds to cover some of the costs of the DNA testing.
Read the full article.
Read the full press release.
Read about New York City cases that were closed when evidence could not be located at NYPD’s evidence warehouse.
Tags: New York, Scott Fappiano, Alan Newton, Evidence Preservation