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He committed the murder.

Or did he?

November 29, 1998
By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Thomas Farese was no choir boy.

He was connected by marriage to New York’s Colombo crime family and had been involved in his share of tangles with the law. But he was no contract killer, he insisted in federal court, even though federal prosecutors told a federal magistrate he had confessed about a murder for hire to a government informant, who told federal agents about the confession from prison.

Prosecutors read the informant’s incriminating statement in court, and Farese was held for trial. In 1994, he was convicted.

It would be two years before his attorneys learned that the same informant had also given government agents an almost identical statement when implicating another man in the same murder. Prosecutors neglected to tell Farese or the judge about the contradiction.

Farese’s attorney, Jon May, was outraged. "Increasingly in this circuit, agents and prosecutors have adopted the philosophy that whatever means are necessary to obtain a conviction are justified by the good that will result to society," he said in the 1996 appeal of Farese’s conviction. "This has resulted in perjury by government agents and the suppression of favorable evidence and the making of false statements in closing arguments by prosecutors."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, saying it was "appalled by the moral blindness exhibited by the assistant supervisors and division chiefs at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors are held to a higher standard for a reason. They are given awesome powers. If they cannot be trusted, we are all at risk."

Farese was released on bond in early 1996 as the government decided whether to refile charges. In early December 1997, the bond was rescinded, and he went back to prison. He was released again on bond in early 1998.

Finally, Farese agreed to a plea bargain: six years in prison on charges relating to a strip club he operated in Florida. He said he agreed to the deal because prosecutors threatened to indict his wife if he did not accept the plea bargain.