Posted on 07/26/2007 11:24:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BOSTON - The FBI helped frame four men for a 1965 murder and withheld information that could have cleared them, a federal judge ruled Thursday in ordering the government to pay $101.7 million for the decades they spent in prison.
"The FBI's misconduct was clearly the sole cause of this conviction," U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said in issuing her ruling in the civil lawsuit.
She called the government's argument that the FBI had no duty to get involved in the state case "absurd."
Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati, who were exonerated in 2001, and the families of the two other men who died in prison had sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.
They argued that Boston FBI agents knew mob hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza lied when he named the men as killers in the 1965 death of Edward Deegan. They said Barboza was protecting a fellow FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was involved in the hit.
The four wrongly convicted men were treated as "acceptable collateral damage" because the FBI's priority at the time was taking down the Mafia, their attorneys said.
A Justice Department lawyer had argued that federal authorities couldn't be held responsible for the results of a state prosecution and had no duty to share information with the officials who prosecuted Limone, Salvati, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco.
"It took 30 years to uncover this injustice, and the government's position is, in a word, absurd," Gertner told the packed courtroom. "No lost liberty is dispensable. We have fought wars over this principle. We are still fighting these wars."
Salvati and Limone were exonerated after FBI memos dating back to the Deegan case surfaced, indicating that the four men had been framed by Barboza. The memos were made public during a Justice Department task force probe of the Boston FBI's relationship with gangsters and FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.
Limone, now 73, and Salvati, 75, stared straight ahead as the judge announced her ruling. A gasp could be heard from the area where their friends and family were sitting when Gertner said how much the government would be forced to pay.
Gertner awarded $26 million to Limone, $29 million to Salvati, $13 million to Tameleo's estate and $28 million to Greco's estate.
The wives of Limone and Salvati and the estate of Tameleo's deceased wife each were awarded slightly more than $1 million, and the men's 10 children were each awarded $250,000.
The men's attorneys had not asked for a specific amount in damages, but in court documents they cited other wrongful conviction cases in which $1 million was awarded for every year of imprisonment.
"Do I want the money? Yes, I want my children, my grandchildren to have things I didn't have, but nothing can compensate for what they've done," Salvati said.
Salvati had been sentenced to life in prison as an accessory to murder and served more than 29 years before his sentence was commuted in 1997.
"It's been a long time coming," said Limone, who served 33 years in prison before he was freed in 2001. "What I've been through — I hope it never happens to anyone else."
Justice Department lawyer Bridget Bailey Lipscomb declined immediate comment on the ruling.
Peter Limone, right, and Joseph Salvati embrace outside the Federal Courthouse in Boston after they were awarded a $101.7 million settlement for their wrongful conviction and three decade imprisonment Thursday, July 26, 2007. The two men were released from prison in 2001 after it was learned the FBI withheld evidence of their innocence to protect an informant. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
L
Birds of a feather. They surely deserved their sentences and more.
L
Birds of a feather BUMP.
you can't be serious...
that has to be one of the inane statements that I have seen on FR in a log time ... (that says alot)
I think you might be happier in China, N. Korea, Iran or another country where guilt by association. or trumped up false charges as used to imprison "undesirables"...
we don't aren't supposed to do that here...
bet you supported Nifong also...
Meanwhile, Whitey’s still on the run...
A voice of reason. Ahhhh, refreshing. Hey there L.
So are these guys mobsters who were not guilty of this particular murder, or were they innocent law-abiding citizens who were framed? There is a difference.
Here's hoping the FBI takes a real personal interest in you and then decides that your life will just be 'acceptable collateral damage.'
L
What exactly?
L
starting today...
Nope... no differnce in this county we (are supposed to) get a fair trial ... and get convicted.. based on the evidence...
not have some self-rightous LEO frame us ... if they had commited a crime they should have been tried for that ..
I'm willing to bet that they have paid for the crimes they have commited, even accidentially, that they will never be brought to trial for.
presumably there are some on FR who think the government maybe used to do things like this, but surely doesn’t anymore.
I am just thrilled to see that so many on THIS site have apparently no regard for this little document we have in have in this country...
please let me introduce you to it as you have obviously NEVER seen it and have no respect for it ...
it's called the CONSTITUTION
specificaly the part you appear ignorant of is:
AMENDMENT IV:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
please familiarize yourself with this document...I don't understand how you can have a problem with this...
please explain
the Fumbling Bumbling and Incompetent frame several people who spend decades in jail
our tax dollars are used compensate the victims of the FBI's crimes and there is no prosecution of the FBI weasels?
they operate with complete impunity and they make the few honest amongst them colored with their felonious conduct
.
Birds of a feather. They surely deserved their sentences and more.
Depending on whom you ask, I’m sure we all do.
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