death row appeals that lasted nearly...

death row appeals that lasted nearly 2 decades culminated in a life sentence for a hired killer.
Anthony DiFrisco, 46, can seek parole in about 12 years under the sentence by state Superior Court Judge Ned M. Rosenberg. Parole ineligibility was set at 30 years, but DiFrisco gets credit for 18 years already served on death row in Trenton.
DiFrisco had been sentenced to death after a bench trial in 1988 for murdering pizzeria owner Edward Potcher. He is now to leave death row at New Jersey State Prison.
Potcher was shot five times on Aug. 12, 1986.
It might not have been solved, but DiFrisco mentioned it to a New York City detective in an effort to beat a stolen car charge.
In an effort to implicate a superior, DiFrisco told police he was paid $2,500 to kill Potcher by a New York mobster who feared Potcher was a police informant. DiFrisco promised to cooperate against the mobster.
DiFrisco later refused to cooperate, and the mobster was never tried. However, DiFrisco was linked to the murder because he took a bite out of a slice of pizza.
"We got impressions of his teeth and it was a perfect match to the pizza," Bogdanski has said. "That corroborated his confession."
After five appeals, the death sentence was overturned on July 5, 2006 (see) by the state Supreme Court on what prosecutors called a procedural technicality.
The successful appeal centered on issues involving the type and timing of reviews afforded in capital cases. The ruling determined that DiFrisco's death sentence must be overturned because a majority of justices had voted - at various times and for various reasons - to sentence him to life in prison.