Anthony Capozzi was convicted and sentenced to 20 years, however, there was no physical evidence linking him to the rapes in Buffalo, New York, in the 1980s. The crime involved several women and occurred along a bike path in Delaware Park. The attacker approached each of them and threatened them at gunpoint before raping them. After the attack, the women were told to stay on the ground for another ten minutes before fleeing (Antonio Capozzi 1). Anthony Capozzi was convicted and sentenced for the bike path rapes, although attacks in the area continued. Careless mistakes can cause huge consequences that affect the entire community. Three of the rape victims told investigators that the attacker weighed approximately 150 pounds (Anthony Capozzi 1). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay This is a perfect example of how police ignore information for their own personal goals because Capozzi weighed 220 pounds and had a scar above his left eye. All descriptions of the attacker provided by the victim did not match Anthony Capozzi; however, police did not provide that information in court. Police focused on Capozzi because an officer noticed his strange behavior at a bar near Delaware Park. Capozzi suffered from schizophrenia and was known to behave strangely in public (Anthony Capozzi 1). Anthony appeared before a parole board every two years while in prison to be considered for release, but was denied parole five times due to failure to confess to the crime. He didn't believe he should admit guilt, show remorse. and complete a mandatory sex offender program for crimes he did not commit. After nearly 25 years in prison, a detective who was examining the case files discovered that one of the victims testified that she saw her rapist walking away from a shopping area parking lot a couple of days after she was attacked. In that time she managed to copy the license plate and report it to the police. Investigators found the owner of the car but he had a verified alibi and his charges were dropped. Only in 2006 was he tracked down again by investigators and interrogated again (Antonio Capozzi 1). After all that time, he finally admitted that the car was not in his possession: he had loaned it to his nephew, Altemio Sanchez. Sanchez was eventually tried and convicted of the bike path rapes. Capozzi's conviction was vacated and all charges against him were dropped. His lawyer, Tommaso D'Agostino, reinstated the search for DNA collected during the preliminary investigations of April 2007 (Antonio Capozzi 1). For 20 years, the victims' rape kits sat in a drawer at the Erie County Medical Center. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay They were believed to be damaged and unused at the trial. Errors like this continue to occur today due to lack of federal, state and local funding creating a testing backlog. Because of Capozzi's wrongful conviction, Congressman Sam Hoyt and State Senator Dale M. Volker passed "Anthony's Law" which prioritizes requests for DNA testing for convicted people, giving them a better chance of being exonerated (Anthony Capozzi 1).