david ranta and he was brought in for a lineup. the 13-year-old lieberman identified ranta as the man in the car. at trial, alleged accomplices of ranta s testified that he had killed the rabbi. he was found guilty of second degree murder and has been in prison ever since with all hopes of appeal failed. that is until two years ago, when lieberman revealed a secret, something that only he knew and that had been weighing on him for over 20 years. he admitted in an affidavit that he was coached, told by an nypd detective to pick the guy with the big nose. more troubling allegations emerged. michael baum was david ranta s original lawyer. you believe he was framed? without a doubt. without a doubt. i believed he was framed then. my concerns about that have never wavered. yes, he was framed. reporter: there has always been the question of ranta s supposed confession after the crime. when he was arrested, detectives said he admitted to being at the
accident not long after the murder. now, ranta s initial attorney said that he used that information to try and get the conviction overturned in the mid 90s and that didn t work. he said that there were questions about credibility that were raised, and now those claims had been examined once again. investigators now saying that the woman s claim there was not enough evidence to either back them up or discredit them so the bottom line is, we may never know who killed the rabbi. mary snow, appreciate it. david ranta s road to prison started with that 13-year-old boy, menachem lieberman who said he was coached in a lineup to i.d. david ranta. ranta s road to freedom also began with that same young man, mr. lieberman, his word, only this time freely given and truthfully spoken. 23 years without freedom for one man. for the other, 23 years carrying a very heavy weight on his conscience.
joining me tonight in a 360 exclusive, menachem lieberman. what happened during the lineup? what did the detective say to you? as i was walking in the room to the lineup, he told me that i should pick out the guy with the biggest nose. when he said that to you, what did you think? i was too young back then to realize that this was a setup. i mean, to me this was basically it was just part of the process. when did you realize that david ranta probably wasn t guilty and the investigation, particularly your picking him out of the lineup, was mishandled? i think as the years went by, i remembered what happened, that somebody told me, but as more and more i found the news of innocent people getting let free in various ways, i started to think back to the trial i was
husband had been killed in a car accident not long after the murder. now, ranta s initial attorney said that he used that information to try and get the conviction overturned in the mid 90s and that didn t work. he said that there were questions about credibility that were raised, and now those claims had been examined once again. investigators now saying that the woman s claim there was not enough evidence to either back them up or discredit them so the bottom line is, we may never know who killed the rabbi. mary snow, appreciate it. david ranta s road to prison started with that 13-year-old boy, menachem lieberman who said he was coached in a lineup to i.d. david ranta. ranta s road to freedom also began with that same young man, mr. lieberman, his word, only this time freely given and truthfully spoken. 23 years without freedom for one man. for the other, 23 years carrying a very heavy weight on his conscience.
it all happened in front of this building in brooklyn, after a thief tried and failed to rob a diamond courier who sped away. the robber then turned his gun on a beloved rabbi who was shot through his car window and died four days later. the community was in anguish. and the nypd was under pressure. a massive effort followed to find the rabbi s killer. the investigation dragged on for six months. the lead detective at the time was louis scarcilla, a man known to use unorthodox tactics to get his man. then a major break in the case. a key witness came forward, a 13-year-old neighbor of the rabbi, on his way to school that morning, a teen named menachem lieberman saw a suspicious looking man in a car around the time of the shooting. eventually, police honed in on