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 scene of the crime, but not the shooter, only that wasn t recorded. but written down on paper by detective louis scarcilla, ranta says that s wrong that he didn t admit to anything. he said he never confessed. ma am, all i have to say is i stand by my confession, the confession that i took. reporter: there are investigators who are saying rules were broken. yep. ma am, i didn t do anything wrong. i stand by my investigation. reporter: the brooklyn district attorney did not stand by the investigation and today, a judge agreed. sir, you are free to go. reporter: in an interview ranta gave the new york times this week as his release was pending, he said quote, i ve
pending, he said quote, i ve lived for years in a cage, stripped down, humiliated. i ll be able to touch people again, to make decisions. to be honest, what s ahead scares me. hard to imagine being in prison for 23 years for a crime you didn t commit. mary snow joins me now. you were in the courtroom. what was the emotion like there? i can only imagine. reporter: yeah, anderson, you know, it was so emotional that the judge started crying at one point, as soon as david ranta walked into that courtroom, his family members were just overcome with emotion. in particular, his daughter, priscilla, was 2 years old when her father was arrested. these family members have had their hopes dashed before so they were very nervous going into this hearing. if david ranta didn t kill the rabbi, who did? reporter: well, a woman had come forward in the 1990s to say that her husband had admitted to killing the rabbi, but her
the detectives knew that, but it wasn t leading to the kind of result that they wanted, which was a live person to pin the case on and you know, mr. ranta was the kind of vulnerable person that they were able to bring in and frame. wow. amazing. 23 years in prison. follow me on twitter, let me know what you think about the case,@andersoncooper. a call for congress to do the right thing, pass meaningful gun control legislation. that call came from the mother of a child killed in the connecticut school massacre. i believe this with all my heart, if any of the senators and congressmen and women were in our shoes for one day, one hour, and felt the pain that we have without our daughter, maybe they would find their own moral compass and take action over inaction. the conversation with the parents of grace mcdonnell, killed at sandy hook, just
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 scene of the crime, but not the shooter, only that wasn t recorded. but written down on paper by detective louis scarcilla, ranta says that s wrong that he didn t admit to anything. he said he never confessed. ma am, all i have to say is i stand by my confession, the confession that i took. reporter: there are investigators who are saying rules were broken. yep. ma am, i didn t do anything wrong. i stand by my investigation. reporter: the brooklyn district attorney did not stand by the investigation and today, a judge agreed. sir, you are free to go. reporter: in an interview ranta gave the new york times this week as his release was pending, he said quote, i ve lived for years in a cage, stripped down, humiliated.
the detectives knew that, but it wasn t leading to the kind of result that they wanted, which was a live person to pin the case on and you know, mr. ranta was the kind of vulnerable person that they were able to bring in and frame. wow. amazing. 23 years in prison. follow me on twitter, let me know what you think about the case,@andersoncooper. a call for congress to do the right thing, pass meaningful gun control legislation. that call came from the mother of a child killed in the connecticut school massacre. i believe this with all my heart, if any of the senators and congressmen and women were in our shoes for one day, one hour, and felt the pain that we have without our daughter, maybe they would find their own moral compass and take action over inaction. the conversation with the