USA: Man is innocent in prison for 37 years for false testimony

Philadelphia, USA
Man is innocent in prison for 37 years for false testimony

A man spent 37 years in the USA behind prison walls – because a witness lied (symbol photo)

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In Philadelphia, a man was innocent behind bars for 37 years. He has now been released because a witness admitted to having given false testimony at the time – in return, police officers allegedly offered him sex and drugs.

After 37 years, Willie Stokes is finally a free man again. The 61-year-old was imprisoned in Philadelphia for 37 years for a murder he did not commit. A lead witness who incriminated him confessed to lying in court because police officers had allegedly promised him a reward in return for the false testimony – in the form of sex and drugs.

As reported by the Associated Press, among others, the witness was in custody in 1983 for rape and murder. The two police officers, who have since passed away, would have promised him relief if he would help them close a murder case. They also allegedly had his girlfriend at the time called to police headquarters to have sex with him, who was even allowed to bring marijuana and a few dozen opioid pills. “I got weak and accepted the offer,” the man said in November before a federal judge he was on a conference call from the Chester Correctional Facility.

In May 1984, at a preliminary hearing, he alleged that a friend from the neighborhood, Stokes, confessed to killing another man while playing dice. Although the witness recanted his story at Stokes’ murder trial in August 1984, the African American was convicted nonetheless and received life imprisonment without parole. A few days later, the Philadelphia prosecutor charged the witness with perjury – not because of his testimony in court, but because of the first testimony he gave at the preliminary hearing. He pleaded guilty and admitted fabricating the confession. He was sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison.

Willie Stokes didn’t find out about the perjury conviction until 2015

However, convicted Willie Stokes, who could have used this in his appeals, never saw it. He only found out about it in 2015. Then, last week, a federal judge overturned Stokes’ conviction on the grounds that it had “grossly violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights by withholding decisive exculpatory evidence.”

District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement: “This remarkable case is marked by prosecution and police practices that were too widespread during the so-called tough crime-fighting of the 1980s and 1990s and unfortunately still exist in far too many jurisdictions today. Prosecutors have a duty to seek justice and to redefine prosecution success – not through ‘wins’ in the form of convictions, but through accuracy and fairness in solving criminal investigations and prosecutions “.

Sources: AP, “The Philadelphia Inquirer”, “Newsweek”

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