[bloodrayne]

Kin Rage Over '82 Slayer's Release

New Jersey - The family of a teenager beaten to death with a hammer is furious that her killer was set free moments after being convicted.
A jury found Marc Ferrara of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, guilty of aggravated manslaughter this week in the 1982 death of 17-year-old Rosie Lorincz.

However, there was a five-year statute of limitations on the crime in 1982, so Ferrara won't do any time.

"It just doesn't seem fair," said Andrea Lorincz, the victim's sister. "He walks free, and we are left without a sister and a daughter, and no justice."

Had he been convicted of murder - for which there is no statute of limitations - Ferrara, 43, could have been sentenced to life in prison.

Because of a Supreme Court ruling that prevents a judge from telling a jury someone can go free even with a guilty verdict, jurors were unaware of the disparity between the two types of convictions.

Ferrara's lawyer, Dennis McAlevy, said there was no choice but to let his client walk.

"The law is what it is, and anybody that's blaming the judge for following the law is obviously mistaken] at the least," he said. "In this country, we don't let the jury get involved in punishment."

The case had remained open until 2002, when Ferrara's sister told cops her brother made her help him get rid of Lorincz's body by dumping it into the Hudson River.

The body, which surfaced nine days after the slaying, was exhumed and identified via DNA testing.