One day after his release from prison on a wrongful conviction, David Ranta suffered a heart attack, CNN reported.
Ranta was freed from prison Thursday after serving 23 years of a 37.5 year sentence for the murder of Brooklyn Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in 1990, during a botched jewelry heist. Ranta was convicted of the killing despite his protests of innocence.
Attormey Pierre Sussman said that Ranta, his client, has been stabilized and is being treated in cardiac intensive care at a metropolitan hospital.
Ranta left a Brooklyn courtroom Thursday after a judge said he was free to go. On the way out he told reporters that the sensation of walking freely out of the courthouse was “overwhelming.”
“I said from the beginning,” Ranta said. “I had nothing to do with this case.” When asked what he was going to do next, he responded, “Get the hell out of here.”
In 2011, an eyewitness came forward to say he had been coached to pick Ranta out of a lineup.
An investigation by the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office found that Ranta’s case had been mishandled by police.
During the hearing, Judge Miriam Cyrulnik apologized to Ranta for what he had endured.
Sussman said that the trauma of being wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for 23 years had ruined Ranta’s health.