Brooklyn Man Released From Prison After DNA Proves Innocence

No thanks to the NYPD

A Brooklyn man who was wrongly convicted of rape more than two decades ago is finally free. A Brooklyn judge ordered Scott Fappiano released from prison Friday, after DNA proved he was not the man to commit the brutal crime in 1983. Despite having spent over 20 years in prison, Fappiano was in surprisingly good spirits. "At this point right now, I'm not angry at anyone right now," Fappiano told the press upon his release.

Fappiano, now 45 years old, had been mistakenly identified as the man who broke into the home of an NYPD officer, tying him up, and repeatedly raping his wife. The wife's mistaken identification from a police lineup led to Fappiano's conviction. In 1985, Fappiano was sentenced to between 21 and 50 years in prison.

"There was times when I gave up that I wasn't going to be exonerated," said Fappiano. "I never game up hope that I was going to come home. I always knew I was going to come home." Fappiano's mother wasn't as quick to forgive. "I feel my son was kidnapped from me 21 years ago and was put away and I never saw him. It's terrible what they did to an innocent person," said Rose Fappiano.

The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal group that worked on Fappiano's case, blamed the NYPD for the miscarriage of justice and pushed prosecutors to reopen the case. An Innocence Project lawyer says his DNA was tested by a private company, proving his innocence. "It is no small miracle that Scott Fappiano is here today," said Fappiano's attorney, Nina Morrison. "Had Scott's fate depended on the evidence, storage, collection and inventory procedures of the NYPD, he would still be in prison today."

The Innocence Project says it searched for two years for DNA evidence in the case. It turned up in a Texas-based DNA lab. A pair of sweatpants the victim wore helped clear Fappiano's name. "I didn't do it and I wanted to prove I didn't do it," said Fappiano. "But from day one, all of my evidence was missing. A lot of my evidence was missing. And eventually something, a miracle happened."

Fappiano's family has been behind him throughout the ordeal and on the day he walked out of court a free man, his family was there to greet him. "We never had a doubt. We always knew it. And today's the day," said Fappiano's cousin Barbara DeCicco. While Fappiano says he's not sure what he'll do for a living, he says he does need to catch up on technology like surfing the internet and using cell phones.

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