More than 16 years after a Pennsylvania jury returned three death sen­tences against Harold Wilson (pic­tured), new DNA evi­dence has helped lead to his acquit­tal. Yesterday, Wilson became the nation’s 122nd per­son freed from death row accord­ing to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). During his 1989 cap­i­tal tri­al, Wilson was pros­e­cut­ed by for­mer Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon, a man best known for his role in a train­ing video that advised new Philadelphia pros­e­cu­tors on how to use race in select­ing death penal­ty juries.

In 1999, Wilson’s death sen­tence was over­turned when a court deter­mined that his defense coun­sel had failed to inves­ti­gate and present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence dur­ing his orig­i­nal tri­al. A lat­er appeal led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to call for a new hear­ing because of evi­dence that McMahon used racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices in jury selec­tion. In 2003, a tri­al court found that McMahon had improp­er­ly exer­cised his peremp­to­ry strikes to elim­i­nate poten­tial black jurors and grant­ed Wilson a new tri­al, a deci­sion that the District Attorney’s office did not appeal. The court stat­ed that in the new tri­al the death penal­ty could not be sought. The jury in this most recent tri­al acquit­ted Wilson of all charges on November 15, 2005, after new DNA evi­dence revealed blood from the crime scene that did not come from Wilson or any of the vic­tims, a find­ing sug­gest­ing the involve­ment of another assailant.

Wilson is the sec­ond per­son to be freed from death row this year, and the sixth Pennsylvania death row inmate to be freed since 1982. (Source: Federal Defender Association of Philadelphia, November 16, 2005). Read DPIC’s Press Release. See Innocence. See also, ​“Blind Justice,” DPIC’s lat­est report that exam­ines the prob­lems of the death penal­ty from the per­spec­tive of jurors.

Citation Guide