Pennsylvania Death Row Inmate Granted New Trial on Innocence-Related Claims; Capitally-Charged Inmate Exonerated

Two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania cap­i­tal cas­es involv­ing men who have long assert­ed their inno­cence reached major mile­stones on August 23, with one win­ning an appeal grant­i­ng him a new tri­al and a jury acquit­ting a sec­ond in his retri­al. Both cas­es involved alle­ga­tions of seri­ous police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. James Dennis (pic­tured), who has been on the Commonwealth’s death row for near­ly 25 years, was grant­ed a new tri­al by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit after pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence that sup­port­ed his claims of inno­cence. Anthony Wright, who was cap­i­tal­ly tried but received a sen­tence of life with­out parole when the jury split 7 for death, 5 for life on the penal­ty ver­dict, was exon­er­at­ed after 25 years. 

Dennis was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1991 mur­der of a 17-year-old in Philadelphia. The full fed­er­al appeals court vot­ed 9 – 4 on Tuesday to uphold a dis­trict court rul­ing grant­i­ng Dennis a new tri­al, revers­ing an ear­li­er deci­sion by a three-judge appel­late pan­el. Writing for the major­i­ty, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell said, ​“Evidence sup­pressed by the pros­e­cu­tion — a receipt cor­rob­o­rat­ing Dennis’ ali­bi, an incon­sis­tent state­ment by the Commonwealth’s key eye­wit­ness, and doc­u­ments indi­cat­ing that anoth­er indi­vid­ual com­mit­ted the mur­der — effec­tive­ly gut­ted the Commonwealth’s case against Dennis. The with­hold­ing of these pieces of evi­dence denied Dennis a fair tri­al in state court.”

On the same day, a jury acquit­ted Anthony Wright in a retri­al for anoth­er 1991 Philadelphia mur­der. Prosecutors had ini­tial­ly sought the death penal­ty when Wright was con­vict­ed in1993, but did not pur­sue the death penal­ty after agree­ing that DNA evi­dence enti­tled Wright to a new tri­al. DNA test­ing of semen found at the crime scene exclud­ed Wright and iden­ti­fied anoth­er per­pe­tra­tor who recent­ly died in prison in South Carolina. Wright’s attor­neys say police pres­sured him into sign­ing a con­fes­sion and false­ly claimed that a set of bloody clothes they report­ed­ly ​“found” in Wright’s bed­room in his moth­er’s house belonged to Wright, when in fact they belonged to the vic­tim and con­tained DNA from the actu­al killer. Peter Neufeld, co-direc­tor of the Innocence Project, said ​“DNA test­ing proved not only that Mr. Wright is absolute­ly inno­cent but also that law enforce­ment fab­ri­cat­ed evi­dence against him.” Grace Greco, the jury fore­woman for Wright’s retri­al, said, ​“I’m angry. The evi­dence was there that he did not com­mit this crime. The city should nev­er have brought this case. I’m just hap­py that today’s ver­dict will let Tony move on with the rest of his life.”