FORMER EXONERATION FOR MAN WRONGLY CONVICTED FOR RAPE
New York Times/John Eligon
Calling wrongful convictions "a catastrophe both for the injured party and for the criminal justice system," Justice Richard D. Carruthers, a Manhattan judge of State Supreme Court, issued a decision that officially exonerated William McCaffrey, now 32, of a rape charge that had kept him in prison for about four years. McCaffrey was arrested in September 2005 on charges that he had raped Biurny Peguero while they were on their way to a party in Upper Manhattan. She recanted her testimony this year and said she had liked to cover up for a fight she had had with some of her friends. She pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of perjury and faces up to seven years in prison.
(New York)
Calling wrongful convictions "a catastrophe both for the injured party and for the criminal justice system," Justice Richard D. Carruthers, a Manhattan judge of State Supreme Court, issued a decision that officially exonerated William McCaffrey, now 32, of a rape charge that had kept him in prison for about four years. McCaffrey was arrested in September 2005 on charges that he had raped Biurny Peguero while they were on their way to a party in Upper Manhattan. She recanted her testimony this year and said she had liked to cover up for a fight she had had with some of her friends. She pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of perjury and faces up to seven years in prison.
(New York)
Submitted on: 12/10/09