Gang Land’s Jerry Capeci writes,
For years, wiseguy Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano has claimed that the federal judge who presided over his three trials was biased against him. Last week, his lawyers said they have found evidence to back up that claim, especially regarding the 2011 murder trial at which Basciano – who faced capital punishment – was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars.
Mr. Capeci writes, In a filing with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals last week, his attorney wrote that new evidence indicates that Nicholas Garaufis, the Brooklyn Federal Judge who presided over the trial, took part in extra-judicial “off-the-record communications” throughout the trial with a law professor who later penned a book, Capital Punishment Trials of Mafia Murderers.
Mr. Capeci writes, In the preface of his 2015 book, Leonard Orland, Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, credits Garaufis for piquing his “interest in capital punishment trials” in general, and Basciano’s in particular. Orland wrote that the judge “invited me to observe initial jury selection” in the case, one of two trials that Orland details and analyzes in his 304-page book.
