Showing Coronavirus Symptoms, ​‘Likely Innocent’ Death-Row Prisoner Seeks Emergency Medical Care

Exhibiting symp­toms of the coro­n­avirus, a Philadelphia death-row pris­on­er who pros­e­cu­tors now acknowl­edge is ​“like­ly inno­cent” and whose poten­tial release has been delayed by the Philadelphia courts has filed an emer­gency motion to obtain test­ing and inde­pen­dent med­ical treat­ment for COVID-19. 

Walter Ogrod (pic­tured) — sen­tenced to death in 1996 for the city’s high­ly sen­sa­tion­al­ized 1988 ​“baby in a box” mur­der — was tak­en to the death-row infir­mary at Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution Phoenix last week with a 106° fever and a dry cough. His Boston-based pro bono attor­ney James Rollins, described Ogrod’s res­pi­ra­tion as ​“like breath­ing through a sponge,” but said the only treat­ment he had received in prison was Tylenol and place­ment in and out of isolation.

On March 18, 2020, Rollins filed two emer­gency motions in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. One sought an order direct­ing the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) to take Ogrod ​“to a hos­pi­tal out­side of the prison for COVID-19 test­ing and appro­pri­ate treat­ment forth­with.“ The sec­ond motion urged the Philadelphia tri­al court to issue an expe­dit­ed rul­ing on two claims that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office agrees enti­tle Ogrod to a new tri­al. Ogrod’s coun­sel urged imme­di­ate action on his peti­tion “[b]ecause of Mr. Ogrod’s dire med­ical con­di­tion in the midst of a world­wide pan­dem­ic, the prison’s appar­ent inabil­i­ty to test him for the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) and treat him, and his incar­cer­a­tion on death row despite his likely innocence.” 

On February 28, 2020, Ogrod and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office filed a Joint Stipulation in the Philadelphia courts describ­ing why new evi­dence required Ogrod’s con­vic­tion to be set aside. The DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit filed an accom­pa­ny­ing brief call­ing Ogrod’s con­vic­tion a ​“gross mis­car­riage of jus­tice” based upon ​“false, unre­li­able and incom­plete” evi­dence and that Ogrod was ​“like­ly inno­cent.” The Conviction Integrity Unit said police and pros­e­cu­tors at the time of tri­al had known that 4‑year-old Barbara Jean Horn had died of asphyx­i­a­tion but had with­held that evi­dence from the defense and pro­ceed­ed to tri­al under the the­o­ry that Ogrod had sex­u­al­ly assault­ed the girl and beat­en her to death with a weight bar. Barbara Jean’s naked body had been found in a plas­tic bag in a card­board box that had been put out for trash col­lec­tion. The DA also dis­closed that the homi­cide detec­tives who obtained a con­fes­sion from Ogrod after between 8 – 16 hours of inter­ro­ga­tion had a his­to­ry of coerc­ing false con­fes­sions, and that the jail­house infor­mants who impli­cat­ed Ogrod in his sec­ond tri­al — his first end­ed in a mis­tri­al after an 11 – 1 jury vote favor­ing acquit­tal — had col­lud­ed with one anoth­er and lied to the jury.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Shelley Robbins New, her­self a for­mer Philadelphia homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor, refused to accept the Joint Stipulation with­out an evi­den­tiary hear­ing and ini­tial­ly set a March 27 court date. Without expla­na­tion, the court post­poned the hear­ing until June. 

“There’s no rea­son for [Ogrod] to still be in prison,” Rollins told Philadelphia’s KYW Newsradio. ​“He’s inno­cent. The judge needs to act on the peti­tion. Barring his imme­di­ate release, we at least want him to get some treat­ment beyond what’s avail­able in the prison.”

[UPDATE: The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas grant­ed the emer­gency treat­ment motion on March 20, 2020. However, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections refused to com­ply with the order, argu­ing that the court lacked juris­dic­tion to rule on that issue. On March 25, the court vacat­ed its order.]