David Ranta, the man who was released from prison this week after serving 23 years for a murder he didn't commit, reportedly suffered a serious heart attack last night.
Ranta, who was falsely convicted of murdering Williamsburg rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in 1990, was released from his Buffalo maximum security facility on Thursday after a judge determined the detectives who manned his case had coached witnesses and otherwise mishandled it. But family members say that on Ranta's second day out of jail, he starting feeling pain in his back and shoulders; he was taken to a local hospital and had to have a stent put in to relieve blockages in his arteries. "The toll that his years in prison have taken on David is great," his lawyer, Pierre Sussman, told reporters.
Ranta didn't have a history of heart trouble, but family members say he does take medication for high-blood pressure. And he had been nervous about his impending freedom just prior to his release. "I really don’t know what I’ll do if I get out," he told the Times a few weeks ago. "It’s like a whole new life." As of today, Ranta is still in the hospital, awaiting a second surgery.
