Neil Ferber

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Charge:	First Degree Murder
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	4.5
Year Crime:	1981
Year Convicted:	1982
Year Cleared:	1986
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Pennsylvania
County or Region of Crime:	Philadelphia
City of Crime:	Philadelphia
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Neil Ferber was wrongly convicted in April 1982 of the 1981 murder in Philadelphia of organized crime figure Chelsais 'Steve' Bouras. After Philadelphia newspaper columnist John Guinther wrote four columns outlining flaws in Ferber's conviction and the evidence supporting his innocence, the prosecution dropped the charges in 1986 based on "new" evidence that showed Ferber's conviction was based on the perjured testimony of a jail-house informant. "The judge characterized the police handling of Ferber's case as a 'Kafkaesque nightmare,' and said that Ferber's 1982 criminal trial was a 'malevolent charade.'" (Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, August 16, 1996.) Neil Ferber filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia, which was settled in August 1996 for $1.9 million in compensation for 3-1/2 years in prison and 14 months on death row."
Conviction Caused By:	Perjured testimony of the prosecutions star witness - a jailhouse informant.
Innocence Proved By:	Charges dropped after the prosecution conceded the prosecution's primary witness wasn't truthful.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$1.9 million ( City of Philadelphia, Aug. 1996)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	36
Age When Released:	41
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 113."
Information Location 1:
Information Source 2:	Death Penalty Information Center
Information Location 2:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html
Information Source 3:	"Neil Ferber Was Sentenced To Death For The Murder of a Couple in Philadelphia in 1982 and Exonerated in 1986, Center on Wrongful Convictions"
Information Location 3:	http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/PA_Ferber.htm
Information Source 4:	"D.A. Reviewing Conviction In Bouras Killing, By Fredric N. Tulsky (Staff Writer), The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 20, 1983"
Information Location 4:
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Information Location 5:
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Neil Ferber

Charge:

First Degree Murder

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

4.5

Year Crime:

1981

Year Convicted:

1982

Year Cleared:

1986

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Pennsylvania

County or Region of Crime:

Philadelphia

City of Crime:

Philadelphia

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Perjured testimony of the prosecutions star witness - a jailhouse informant.

Innocence Proved By:

Charges dropped after the prosecution conceded the prosecution's primary witness wasn't truthful.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$1.9 million ( City of Philadelphia, Aug. 1996)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

36

Age When Released:

41

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 113."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

Death Penalty Information Center

Information Location 2:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html

Information Source 3:

"Neil Ferber Was Sentenced To Death For The Murder of a Couple in Philadelphia in 1982 and Exonerated in 1986, Center on Wrongful Convictions"

Information Location 3:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/PA_Ferber.htm

Information Source 4:

"D.A. Reviewing Conviction In Bouras Killing, By Fredric N. Tulsky (Staff Writer), The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 20, 1983"

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: