The city of Syracuse, New York, remains divided over the prosecution of Anthony Broadwater for the rape of bestselling author Alice Sebold. Nearly five years ago, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick publicly criticized the county’s decades-old decision to prosecute Broadwater.

Despite this, both the county government and Syracuse continue to contest a lawsuit filed by Broadwater seeking financial compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.

In December 2025, Syracuse’s paid expert, Bennett Gershman, a veteran law professor at Pace University, submitted a report in the civil suit asserting that the city’s prosecutors “did not engage in misconduct” in the case. This stance contrasts sharply with Gershman's statements just over a year earlier, when he told a reporter that prosecutors had “manufactured a case” against Broadwater, calling it “the most heinous kind of prosecutorial misconduct — when the prosecutor is creating guilt.”

Stephen Gillers, an emeritus professor and ethics expert at New York University School of Law, noted that while it is rare for an expert to change their position so publicly, “It’s not unethical to change your mind.”

Alice Sebold, in her June 2025 deposition, testified that she knew before speaking to officers or prosecutor Gail Uebelhoer that she had made a mistaken lineup selection. In her memoir "Lucky," Sebold described feeling a wave of nausea after the lineup, convinced she had chosen the wrong man.

A legal expert with six decades of experience told ProPublica that he had never seen a case where a prosecutor so clearly influenced a witness to testify against the accused, calling the conduct “blatant” and “grotesque.”

This case continues to highlight tensions between criminal authorities who acknowledge Broadwater as a wronged individual and civil authorities defending the original prosecution.

Sources