For more than two decades, David Ranta has been behind bars for the killing of a Brooklyn rabbi during a botched diamond heist.

In the years since his 1991 conviction, another man's widow has identified her husband as the killer; a onetime jail inmate has said he made up statements about Ranta to boost his own fortunes; and a now-grown boy who once picked him out of a lineup has come forward to say he was coached by a detective.

Now, Brooklyn prosecutors have recommended that Ranta go free -- and if a judge agrees, he could walk out of court as early as Thursday.

"There was never a doubt in my mind that he was innocent," said Michael Baum, the lawyer who represented Ranta at his 1991 trial.

The rabbi, Chaskel Werzberger, died four days after being shot, a victim of the attempted holdup of a diamond courier. The courier escaped, but the would-be robber shot Werzberger through the window of his parked car, hauled him out of the vehicle and drove off, according to the Brooklyn district attorney's office.

Louis Scarcella, one of the detectives who investigated the case, told CNN that Ranta admitted his involvement in the heist attempt and that he stands by the arrest. As for claims that police coached a witness, he said, "No way that happened."

But the now-retired Scarcella added, "If they release him tomorrow, I say, God bless him. I have nothing personal involved in this, and I was just doing my job. "

Ranta, now 58, was arrested six months after Werzberger's February 1990 killing. He was picked up after two men facing trial on their own robbery charges gave his name to police, prosecutors recounted in asking that his second-degree murder conviction be tossed out and the charges dismissed.

One of them, Alan Bloom, identified Ranta as the gunman. Another acquaintance -- a woman who had brought charges against Ranta in a "prior altercation" -- told police that Ranta had confided in her about the planned jewelry robbery and the murder of the rabbi, prosecutors wrote.

In an initial lineup, only one witness recognized Ranta, and that was after a lengthy conversation with a Yiddish interpreter, they noted. In the second lineup, three youths identified him and repeated that identification in court. One witness who didn't identify him was the courier, the intended target of the holdup.