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Ex-cop appeals conviction in Dobbs Ferry slaying
By SHAWN COHEN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: September 22, 2006)
NEW YORK — The lawyer for convicted murderer Richard D. DiGuglielmo filed a new appeal yesterday, claiming the ex-cop should be released from prison because new higher court rulings call into question the verdict that sent him there.
DiGuglielmo's lawyer said recent state Court of Appeals rulings severely restricted when authorities can charge "depraved-mind murder" — the legal justification Westchester prosecutors used to convict DiGuglielmo for the 1996 slaying of Charles Campbell outside a Dobbs Ferry delicatessen.
"Those decisions establish that the people failed to demonstrate that Mr. DiGuglielmo possessed a mental state of depraved indifference," and his conviction should be tossed out, said his lawyer Andrew Schapiro, who filed the appeal in Westchester County Court on the same day that DiGuglielmo's parents and several retired New York City police officers rallied behind his client outside Manhattan's police headquarters.
DiGuglielmo, a former New York City police officer, contended he opened fire to protect his father when Campbell came at him with a baseball bat following a confrontation that began after Campbell parked in front of the DiGuglielmos' deli so he could shop across the street. Jurors convicted him based on witness testimony that Campbell was backing away and was not swinging the bat when he was shot three times.
"No matter how they try to spin it, the truth is there's no technicality that's going to bring my brother back," said the victim's brother, William Campbell.
One issue of the appeal is whether the new rulings apply to decided cases. A few convicts have been set free under the new rulings, but that involved individuals whose appeals were active. DiGuglielmo has already exhausted the formal appeals process, but his lawyer argues his client should be freed as well out of what he called a "fairness doctrine."
About 15 people gathered for the rally, including DiGuglielmo's father, Richard B. DiGuglielmo, who showed blood clots on his leg that remain from where Campbell hit him with the bat.
"The third (swing) was coming for my head," DiGuglielmo said. "My son saved me."
Demonstrators wore black T-shirts stating, "Self-defense is not a crime," and "Free Richard DiGuglielmo."
Protesters also criticized the Dobbs Ferry police, who investigated the case, and the Westchester District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted it under then-District Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
"When you get politics in a courtroom, justice goes right out the window," Richard B. DiGuglielmo said, accusing Pirro of turning the into a race case because DiGuglielmo is white and Campbell was black.
"Richard DiGuglielmo's conviction has been reviewed and re-reviewed by both state and federal appeals courts," the Pirro campaign said in a statement. "The only shame is that the memory of an innocent victim, murdered unjustifiably by this defendant, continues to be maligned by the murderer's misguided supporters."