Despite being in tremendous physical condition at the age of 70, Small now finds himself in the fight of his life?
Former welterweight prospect Eddie Small from the Bronx, New York, retired from the ring in 1969 with a record of 6-1-3 (2 KOs). A life-threatening injury incurred outside of the squared circle ended what had once been a promising career.
Despite being in tremendous physical condition at the age of 70, Small now finds himself in the fight of his life. This time it involves his son David, and what seems like a clear case of flawed jurisprudence.
Eddie is battling against seemingly insurmountable odds to free his incarcerated son, David, a former tractor trailer driver and security guard, from what appears to be an unjust 2008 conviction for attempted rape, unlawful imprisonment and burglary, which garnered him a 12-year prison sentence.
Eddie is no stranger to adversity, but is the first to admit that this fight is getting the better of him.
As a boxer, at various times New York newspapers had described him as ?nifty,? ?a crack flyweight? and ?the most spectacular of 126 pounders.?
He was the subject of a 1963 ABC television show called ?What Americans Want to Know,? which described his transition from a standout amateur boxer to the pro ranks.
The June 1964 issue of The RING magazine named him Prospect of the Month.
His professional derailment began in August 1964. While waiting on a Bronx street for a date to see the film ?A Shot in the Dark? with Peter Sellers, Small was attacked by a man with a steak knife. He was stabbed in the head, the blade missing his eyeball by a centimeter.
Although Small spent several weeks in the hospital, he miraculously did not lose his sight in that eye.
?I thought my life was over,? said Small. ?I was in surgery for eight hours and needed 2,000 stitches. I?ve had a lot of plastic surgery since.?
To this day, Small believes his manager, with whom he had been feuding, was involved in the unprovoked attack.
When Small returned to the gym two years later, the manager said to him, ?I told you, if you don?t fight for me, you won?t fight for anybody.?
Small joined the New York City Corrections Department in 1972, and retired as a captain in 1993. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he is a member of the Department of Homeland Security volunteer force.
It is from that distinct geological disadvantage that his battle rages to free his son.
While on the surface the crimes David was convicted of are heinous, the facts in no way support the charges.
In the early morning hours of May 26, 2005, the alleged victim went screaming to her neighbor?s home in Orange County, a northern New York City suburb, that someone had broken into her home and held her captive with intentions of committing a sexual assault.
Later that day the Village of Chester Police Department distributed a wanted poster with a sketch of a suspect. Besides looking nothing like David Small, it described the perpetrator as being a white man between 5?8? to 5?10? tall and 175 to 200 pounds.
At different times during the ensuing two-year investigation, the alleged victim described her assailant as being either 5?8? to 5?10? tall and 160 to 180 pounds or 5?10? to 6?1? tall and between 200 and 225 pounds.
The victim, a longtime neighbor of David, initially identified a different suspect from a photo array. He was questioned by police, cleared, and released.
The woman then picked another person from a photo array. He too was cleared. It was not until two years later that she picked David, despite the fact that he lived within a block of her and had been a casual acquaintance.
As if that was not enough to create reasonable doubt, David?s physical size should have sealed the deal. He is all of 5?2? tall and 140 pounds.
Moreover, testimony was presented in court where the alleged victim told authorities she had been face to face with a dark-skinned, possibly Hispanic man with an accent. During the two-year investigation of the case, the victim had been in David?s company on numerous occasions and even had conversations with his mother.
Despite all this contrary evidence, after four hours alone in an interrogation room with an investigator, and no counsel present, David did sign a confession that he has always maintained he did not read or write. He claims he was told by police that the only way he was going home was if he signed the statement, which he foolishly did.
After doing so he was released from custody but arrested two days later. The delay would suggest prosecutorial misgivings about the ?confession.?
David was tried, convicted and sentenced to the lengthy prison term despite the fact that the alleged victim had a history of bizarre behavior that included living in squalor and rummaging through dumpsters.
Most importantly, the DNA found under the victim?s fingernails did not match David?s. The only DNA evidence was on a beer can that could have been found in the dumpster shared by David and the victim.
A woman named Lisa Kessler had been a neighbor David?s since 1984 and saw him on an almost daily basis. During his trial she repeatedly requested to testify, but was told by David?s attorney that the case was so flimsy her testimony was unnecessary.
Ms. Kessler, who is employed at a cooperative educational center, later submitted a notarized statement stating she and the alleged victim worked for the same organization. Ms. Kessler regularly drove the alleged victim, who was an aide at the company, to work.
During these many trips, the alleged victim always described her assailant as being close to six feet tall and ?husky.? She never wavered in that description, and also told Ms. Kessler that he appeared to be Colombian, even though she had told responding officers he was white.
The alleged victim is approximately 5?4? tall, while David, as noted earlier, is two inches shorter and slim.
No one would ever take David for being Hispanic, much less Colombian. And the only accent he has is that of a born and bred New Yorker.
Ms. Kessler was aware that the alleged victim knew David because they all lived in the same area. Never once did the purported victim suggest or allege that David was involved.
?David is approximately 5?2? and never was husky in the 24 years we were neighbors,? wrote Ms. Kessler in a sworn 2013 statement. ?David has been dealing with a grave injustice since his incarceration.?
Bonnie Silvestri, another woman who lives in the area, signed a sworn statement saying she witnessed a man ?fleeing? the crime scene and she asserted with ?absolute certainty? the man was not David, who she had known for ?many years.?
Ms. Silvestri said she had written several letters ?attesting to these facts? and wished that ?action would be taken so that an innocent man can be released from prison and move on with his life.?
David?s brother, Michael Small, an architect with no criminal history, clearly remembers the day of the alleged incident because it was his final day of college. David had woken him up early because he was beside himself about a bankruptcy proceeding later that morning. Michael specifically recalls going downstairs to make coffee and noticing the time on the microwave being 5:02 am.
?Fact of the matter is that if the crime was committed at (the victim?s) residence that day, (it) couldn?t have been my brother because he couldn?t have been in two places at one time,? wrote Michael in a sworn statement.
Michael was eager to testify at the trial, but was told by David?s attorney that ?it wouldn?t make a difference because I am his brother and I would defend him no matter what the circumstance.?
According to Eddie, the other witnesses were told there was no need for them to testify because the case against his son was so weak.
Making things even more frustrating from legal, ethical, personal and familial standpoints is the fact that the New York State Appellate Court reversed the trial court on the attempted rape conviction, but the sentence was not lessened despite that being the most serious charge.
Writing for a grassroots newspaper called ?The Patriot? in 2013, renowned attorney and social justice advocate Brent J. Cutler said even if Small was guilty of the burglary, once the attempted rape conviction was vacated the criminal charges that remained did not ?add up to a 12 year sentence.?
David has been in custody at the maximum security Sing Sing Correctional Facility since August 2008. He is not eligible for release until July 2018.
Although David?s appeals attorney has been successful in getting the sexual charges dropped, David was still recently declined for a work release program because of the initial alleged sexual nature of the incident.
Despite his anger and frustration, David has made the best of a bad situation. He has, for example, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in education through Hudson Link, a privately funded college program for inmates (www.hudsonlink.org).
As proud as Eddie is of David?s educational accomplishments, it does not ease the pain and the anger he feels toward the system that he believes stacked a loaded deck against his son.
?What happened to David is a travesty,? said an understandably irate Eddie. ?I know most people would think of me as just another father trying to do or say anything to protect his son, no matter what he has done.
?This is absolutely not the case. Documented records speak for themselves, and some common sense must also prevail. David is a good young man. He was never convicted of anything prior to this incident.
?The only real crime committed in this entire scenario is what happened to my son, how the state of affairs regarding his case was handled from beginning to end. As a father watching my son rot in jail, a victim of an unconscionable legal system, it destroys me. But the reality is, it?s my son who is being destroyed.?
?If a conviction is vacated, the sentence should be adjusted to fit the remaining convictions,? wrote Brent Cutler. ?Further, (the victim?s) identification of Small does not seem to be beyond reasonable doubt. Small sits in Sing Sing hoping that the governor will either commute the sentence or pardon him.?
Cutler described David as one of what he calls ?the five percent.?
?It has been said many times that 95 percent of the people in prison are guilty,? he wrote. ?It is the other five percent that should be of concern to society. David Small seems to be part of that five percent of people in prison that society should be concerned about.?
