A former NYPD detective testified Friday that a man he helped put away for murder never committed the crime.
“As I sit here today, I believe Edward Garry is innocent,” Peter Forcelli, now a federal ATF investigator in Florida, told the judge in a post-conviction hearing at Bronx Supreme Court.
Garry was sentenced to 25 years to life in 1995 for killing a retired police officer who intervened in the robbery of a gambling den in the back of a Bronx bodega.
His conviction was based on eyewitness testimony, but three men who have pleaded guilty to involvement in the murder all say Garry had nothing to do with it.
Despite Forcelli’s testimony, Justice Michael Gross said he won’t make a decision until early next year.
Garry’s lawyer, Glenn Garber, said it’s been clear for years that the wrong man is in prison and “it’s frustrating that it’s taken as long as it has.”
