Vincent Ferrara - convicted: 1992
Facing a possible life sentence if convicted at trial, Boston Mafia captain Vincent Ferrara pleaded guilty to federal charges of racketeering gambling, extortion, and ordering the 1985 murder of Vincent Limoli and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. But Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn did not tell Ferrara's lawyer that key witness Walter Jordan had tried to recant his allegation that Ferrara ordered the slaying. Jordan came forward in 2002 to say that prosecutors and investigators coerced him into sticking to his story. Ferrara's sentence for the murder was overturned and he was released from prison in 2005. Released: 2005 Angel "Sammy" Toro - convicted: 1983 Angel Toro was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Kathleen Downey, desk clerk at the Dorchester Howard Johnson's who was killed during an armed robbery in 1981. In 2004, prosecutors said that they would seek to vacate Toro's conviction after two prosecution witnesses stated that police had pressured them to commit perjury at trial and evidence implicating a different perpetrator was discovered in police files. Conviction vacated: 2004 Laurence Adams - convicted: 1974 Adams was sentenced to the electric chair for the 1972 beating death of transit worker James Corry. That sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the Supreme Judicial Court invalidated the capital statute. The conviction was called into question when it was discovered that Boston police had withheld evidence and witnesses identifying other individuals and a trial witness recanted her testimony. Prosecutors dropped the murder charges thirty years after he was sentenced to die. Released: 2004 http://www.nodp.org/ma/mass_mistake.html An Extra Video http://youtu.be/Q0f82C9_Tlc |
Vincent Ferrara"Sammy"Laurence |