NEWS (3/​25/​20): Pennsylvania — Citing lack of juris­dic­tion, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas has vacat­ed an emer­gency order it issued on Saturday that had direct­ed the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PaDOC) to trans­port Walter Ogrod from death row to an inde­pen­dent hos­pi­tal to obtain imme­di­ate test­ing and treat­ment for symp­toms of the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus.

Ogrod, who pros­e­cu­tors con­cede is ​“like­ly inno­cent” and is enti­tled to a new tri­al, had symp­toms of coro­n­avirus infec­tion, includ­ing a dry cough, a fever that reached 106°F, and res­pi­ra­tion he described as ​“like breath­ing through a sponge.” Prison med­ical care had report­ed­ly been lim­it­ed to giv­ing him Tylenol and mov­ing him in and out of isolation.

The PaDOC had defied the court’s emer­gency order over the week­end, send­ing a let­ter to the court chal­leng­ing its per­son­al and sub­ject mat­ter juris­dic­tion to rule on the mat­ter. PaDOC argued that the depart­ment was not a par­ty to Ogrod’s crim­i­nal case and that orders con­cern­ing prison med­ical care were beyond the author­i­ty of coun­ty crim­i­nal courts. Citing cas­es sup­plied by PaDOC, the order sum­mar­i­ly stat­ed, with­out fur­ther expla­na­tion: ​“This Court, upon fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion … lacks jurisdiction.” 

On February 28, 2020, Ogrod and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office filed a Joint Stipulation in the tri­al court 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 police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and said that Ogrod was ​“like­ly inno­cent.” The tri­al court refused to accept the stip­u­la­tion, set a hear­ing date for March 27, and then resched­uled the pro­ceed­ings for early June.

On March 18, 2020, alleg­ing that he not received COVID-19 test­ing or appro­pri­ate treat­ment for the virus, Ogrod filed two emer­gency motions in the Philadelphia court. One sought emer­gency med­ical inter­ven­tion. The sec­ond urged the court to issue an expe­dit­ed rul­ing on the claims the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office has con­ced­ed enti­tle Ogrod to a new tri­al. Ogrod’s lawyers said they are con­tin­u­ing to seek an imme­di­ate rul­ing from the court on the second motion.

Ogrod has been in prison near­ly three decades and on death row for the past 23 years. His first tri­al end­ed in a mis­tri­al, with eleven jurors vot­ing to acquit.

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