POSSIBLE INNOCENCE: Newspaper Explores Case of Pennsylvania Death Row Inmate

In an exclu­sive two-part series titled ​“Snitch Work,” Philadelphia’s City Paper explores the pos­si­ble inno­cence of Pennsylvania death row inmate Walter Ogrod. Investigative writer Tom Lowenstein describes Ogrod’s first tri­al, which result­ed in a mis­tri­al when 11 of the 12 jurors vot­ed for acquit­tal. In Ogrod’s sec­ond tri­al in 1996, the state employed a noto­ri­ous jail­house snitch, John Hall, to strength­en their case against Ogrod, who con­tin­ued to main­tain his inno­cence. Lowenstein’s ​“Snitch Work” series exam­ines Ogrod’s case, includ­ing an alledged coerced con­fes­sion and police mis­con­duct, the fail­ure to find any phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Ogrod to the 1988 mur­der of 4‑year-old Barbara Jean Horn, and the pos­si­bil­i­ty that tests on DNA evi­dence from anoth­er child-mur­der case could exon­er­ate Ogrod. The arti­cles also pro­vide a clos­er look into the meth­ods of jail­house snitch­es, includ­ing com­ments from John Hall about how he helped to send Ogrod to death row.