DNA testing exonerates Florida man convicted of 1983 murder
Final DNA test results exonerate a Florida man who has served 26 years in prison -- more than half his life -- for a rape and murder, attorneys said Wednesday.
Broward County prosecutors will ask a judge Thursday to throw out Anthony Caravella’s conviction and life sentence, freeing him of restrictions imposed since he was temporarily released from prison Sept. 10.
“I never had any doubt that Anthony was innocent,” said Diane Cuddihy, the public defender who worked for nine years to free him.
“The shocking thing is that an innocent man can be convicted like this.”
Caravella was 15 and had an IQ of 67, well below normal, when he was charged with the Nov. 5, 1983, murder of Ada Cox Jankowski, 58, in Miramar, Fla.
“It’s over,” Caravella said in a phone call minutes after he learned of the DNA results. “I’m OK now.”
Broward County prosecutors took the unusual step of temporarily releasing Caravella six months ago when earlier tests seemed to clear him. But he had to wear a GPS ankle monitor and obey a curfew while prosecutors did more forensic testing.
“I feel good, man, because I’ve never been free all this time,” Caravella said. “When they let me walk out that [prison] door, I was free but I wasn’t free because it was all hanging over my head. Now I’ll be really free.”
He turns 42 on Saturday, the first birthday he will celebrate in freedom since he was 15.
Prosecutor Carolyn McCann, who handled the new appeal since 2001, said Wednesday that a second independent lab had ruled out Caravella as the source of genetic evidence found on the victim.
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