MERCYforMOM
10-08-2002, 10:29 AM
Check out this woman's story and her amazing family. Click on the weblink in the story below, PLEASE push the button on the "How you Can Help" page and pass on to people who will do do the same: especially prisoner family members who will understand what this family has been through. THANKS!
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Public Information Coordinator, MERCY FOR MOM
Phone: 518-634-2170
E-mail: press@MercyForMom.org
Website: http://www.MercyForMom.org
MERCY FOR MOM: UNUSUAL PLEA FOR CLEMENCY LAUNCHED BY SONS OF "MURDERED"
FATHER
On the eve of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Long Island residents Lenny and Anthony La Pinta launched MERCY for MOM, an appeal to free their 66-year-old mother, Marie La Pinta, imprisoned in New York for nearly 19 years in connection with the shooting death of their father, Michael La Pinta, in 1983.
The anchor of the La Pinta family campaign is a website -- http://www.MERCYForMOM.org -- where the sons make their case for their mother's clemency to both the public and New York's Governor George Pataki. There is also a 20-minute, broadcast-quality video produced in 2000 containing an interview with Mrs. La Pinta at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
In New York, Executive Clemency is defined as a commutation of sentence and is granted at the sole discretion of the Governor. Prisoners in New York are eligible for clemency when they have served at least half their sentences, exhausted their judicial remedies, and have no pending legal actions.
Together with her brother, Leonardo Crociata, Marie La Pinta was convicted in 1984 in Suffolk County of the murder of her husband of 27 years. Although both Marie and Leonardo were convicted of Second Degree Murder, undisputed evidence at trial confirmed that Maria did not handle the gun that fired the bullets that ended her husband's life. Marie however was sentenced to 25 years to life -- the maximum sentence allowable under law for Second Degree Murder-- by now retired Suffolk County Judge John Vaughn after trial.
The prosecution's case hinged on the testimony of Detective Dennis Rafferty with the Suffolk County Homicide Squad who testified that Marie had orally confessed and shared the intent with her brother to kill her husband. (The detective was later dismissed from the Homicide Squad.) Marie and Leonardo both denied having made oral confessions and argued that Michael's death was the unplanned result of an unanticipated struggle, initiated by Michael.
In a November 16, 2000 letter supporting clemency for Mrs. La Pinta, then Suffolk County, NY District Attorney James M Catterson, Jr. writes, "A review of the case file of this Office establishes a history of marital discord within the family of long duration which reached flash point during the period leading to Michael La Pinta's murder. There is considerable evidence that the victim Michael La Pinta possessed a hair-trigger temper frequently visited upon Mrs. La Pinta...… Catterson goes on to point out that, "Until his retirement it was the practice of Judge Vaughn to impose maximum sentences where a defendant elected to go to trial and was subsequently found guilty".
In August of this year, Marie's sons re-submitted their now two year old request for Marie's freedom to the Executive Clemency Board. In 2000, clemency was denied despite unusually broad support for Marie's early release by the victim's own mother, the original trial prosecutor in the case, and a diverse collection of neighbors, relatives and friends, domestic violence experts, prison employees, clergy and elected officials from Long Island. This week, the family submitted an addendum to the original clemency request, including a petition with over 1,600 signatures of New Yorkers in support of Mrs. La Pinta's early release.
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Note: The first Domestic Violence Awareness Month Commemorative Legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1989. Such legislation has passed every year since to help all Americans contemplate the scars that domestic violence leaves on our society and what each of us can do to prevent it.
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Public Information Coordinator, MERCY FOR MOM
Phone: 518-634-2170
E-mail: press@MercyForMom.org
Website: http://www.MercyForMom.org
MERCY FOR MOM: UNUSUAL PLEA FOR CLEMENCY LAUNCHED BY SONS OF "MURDERED"
FATHER
On the eve of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Long Island residents Lenny and Anthony La Pinta launched MERCY for MOM, an appeal to free their 66-year-old mother, Marie La Pinta, imprisoned in New York for nearly 19 years in connection with the shooting death of their father, Michael La Pinta, in 1983.
The anchor of the La Pinta family campaign is a website -- http://www.MERCYForMOM.org -- where the sons make their case for their mother's clemency to both the public and New York's Governor George Pataki. There is also a 20-minute, broadcast-quality video produced in 2000 containing an interview with Mrs. La Pinta at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
In New York, Executive Clemency is defined as a commutation of sentence and is granted at the sole discretion of the Governor. Prisoners in New York are eligible for clemency when they have served at least half their sentences, exhausted their judicial remedies, and have no pending legal actions.
Together with her brother, Leonardo Crociata, Marie La Pinta was convicted in 1984 in Suffolk County of the murder of her husband of 27 years. Although both Marie and Leonardo were convicted of Second Degree Murder, undisputed evidence at trial confirmed that Maria did not handle the gun that fired the bullets that ended her husband's life. Marie however was sentenced to 25 years to life -- the maximum sentence allowable under law for Second Degree Murder-- by now retired Suffolk County Judge John Vaughn after trial.
The prosecution's case hinged on the testimony of Detective Dennis Rafferty with the Suffolk County Homicide Squad who testified that Marie had orally confessed and shared the intent with her brother to kill her husband. (The detective was later dismissed from the Homicide Squad.) Marie and Leonardo both denied having made oral confessions and argued that Michael's death was the unplanned result of an unanticipated struggle, initiated by Michael.
In a November 16, 2000 letter supporting clemency for Mrs. La Pinta, then Suffolk County, NY District Attorney James M Catterson, Jr. writes, "A review of the case file of this Office establishes a history of marital discord within the family of long duration which reached flash point during the period leading to Michael La Pinta's murder. There is considerable evidence that the victim Michael La Pinta possessed a hair-trigger temper frequently visited upon Mrs. La Pinta...… Catterson goes on to point out that, "Until his retirement it was the practice of Judge Vaughn to impose maximum sentences where a defendant elected to go to trial and was subsequently found guilty".
In August of this year, Marie's sons re-submitted their now two year old request for Marie's freedom to the Executive Clemency Board. In 2000, clemency was denied despite unusually broad support for Marie's early release by the victim's own mother, the original trial prosecutor in the case, and a diverse collection of neighbors, relatives and friends, domestic violence experts, prison employees, clergy and elected officials from Long Island. This week, the family submitted an addendum to the original clemency request, including a petition with over 1,600 signatures of New Yorkers in support of Mrs. La Pinta's early release.
********
Note: The first Domestic Violence Awareness Month Commemorative Legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1989. Such legislation has passed every year since to help all Americans contemplate the scars that domestic violence leaves on our society and what each of us can do to prevent it.