Nicknamed “The Closer” for solving 175 unsolved cases in the 1980s and 1990s.
Prosecutors began investigating in 2013 and found 12 people not guilty.
Re-investigation in progress… New York City and state compensation payments expected to increase significantly in the future
The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 20th (local time) that New York City and New York State had to pay $111 million (about 142.9 billion won) to 12 victims because of a former New York police officer who created dozens of murderers by manipulating testimony. did.
Victims of Investigator Luis Scarcella, who created criminals by manipulating witnesses and eliciting false confessions, received $73.1 million in compensation from New York City and $36.9 million from the State of New York. The state of New York will pay $10 million more after a defendant imprisoned in 1995 for burning alive a New York subway ticket agent was acquitted.
No charges were filed against Investigator Scarcella.
In New York, where there are 36,000 police officers, among the cases fabricated by Scarceller, the proportion of cases in which more than $5 million in compensation was paid through acquittal between 2014 and 2022 accounts for 15% of the total.
Scarcello, 72, was a homicide detective at Brooklyn’s North District police station in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time, drug crimes were rapidly increasing and murders were frequent in the area. He retired in 1999 and was nicknamed “The Terminator” during his tenure. He was a ‘legendary’ investigator who smoked cigars and solved murder cases that his colleagues had given up on. He has solved at least 175 cases.
He became a police officer in 1973 following his father, and was said to resemble “Dr. Phil” (the name of a famous broadcast psychologist at the time) due to his ability to elicit confessions.
However, there was constant criticism that confessions were elicited through threats or manipulation, and there were many cases where the defendants’ confessions to Scarella were overturned in court.
In 2013, a Brooklyn prisoner who had been serving 20 years for a murder case revealed that Scarcella had promised that if he identified the 1990 murderer of a Jewish priest, he would get him out of prison so he could pursue drugs and prostitution. . As the prosecution began reinvestigating the case, many witnesses withdrew their testimony at the time.
David Lanter, whom Scarcella accused of being the criminal, was released in March 2013, and the NYT reported that a woman who was addicted to drugs was frequently appearing as a witness in cases investigated by Scarcella. From then on, prosecutors began reinvestigating the entire murder case that Scarcella had investigated and resulted in a conviction. Since then, dozens of requests for a retrial have been filed.
The total sentences of those who were imprisoned but found not guilty as a result of the Scarcella investigation amounted to 268 years. Brooklyn prosecutors are still reinvestigating dozens of cases he handled.
Legal experts criticized the fact that only compensation was provided to the victims and that Scarcello was not held accountable.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.