The Innocence Network 2023 -
Re Barry Gibbs: ‘It’s completely crazy and irrational that you could be framed for this murder out of nowhere. Out of nowhere.’ The Innocence Network, 2023, Barry Scheck
Barry Gibbs claims to be a victim of a miscarriage of justice … November 4th 1986: Barry was convicted of the murder of a woman in Brooklyn, New York: her body had been found on the side of the road. ibid.
‘It’s not quite clear why Barry became a suspect in this case.’ ibid. Vanessa Potkin
The officer who was present on the day of the crime and who could have exonerated Barry was not called to testify by the defense. However, the prosecutor called to the stand the runner who identified Barry Gibbs in the police line-up. ibid.
‘A professional snitch … who have an incentive to lie.’ ibid.
Barry Gibbs had always felt framed by this officer [Louis Eppolito]. ibid.
DNA testing of the evidence: this was the only lead that might indisputably prove Barry Gibbs’s innocence. ibid.
An unexpected lead appeared hitting the headlines in the news: Office Louis Eppolito and his colleague Stephen Caracappa were prosecuted for links to the Mafia. ibid.
‘The eyewitness who had identified Barry … broke down and confessed and said that Eppolito had coerced him into identifying Barry in a lineup.’ ibid.
‘They raided Eppolito’s home … they found the original police file.’ ibid.
On September 27 2005 after 19 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit Barry Gibbs was officially exonerated and released. ibid.
‘Plucked off the streets and framed for a murder out of nowhere.’ ibid. Scheck