FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 6, 2002 Contact: BRENDA BOWSER
202 – 293-6970
bbowser@​deathpenaltyinfo.​org

PENNSYLVANIA MAN IS 101st
EXONERATED DEATH ROW INMATE

Jury acquits Thomas Kimbell after hear­ing cru­cial tes­ti­mo­ny barred at first trial

WASHINGTON, DC — Thomas H. Kimbell, Jr., became the nation’s 101st exon­er­at­ed death row inmate since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty, accord­ing to an announce­ment made today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Kimbell was sen­tenced to death in 1998 fol­low­ing his con­vic­tion for the mur­der of his neigh­bor, Bonnie Dryfuse, her two young daugh­ters, and her niece. He spent four years on Pennsylvania’s death row before the jury at his retri­al acquit­ted him of all charges. The May 3 rul­ing came after jurors heard cru­cial tes­ti­mo­ny barred at Kimbell’s original trial.

In 2000, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court grant­ed Kimbell a sec­ond tri­al after find­ing that the tri­al court wrong­ful­ly exclud­ed tes­ti­mo­ny that might have cre­at­ed doubt about Kimbell’s guilt. The exclud­ed tes­ti­mo­ny would have placed Dryfuse’s hus­band at the crime scene less than one hour before the vic­tims were report­ed to police. This tes­ti­mo­ny, which was per­mit­ted dur­ing Kimbell’s retri­al, proved to be cru­cial in estab­lish­ing his innocence.

“There have now been more than 100 exon­er­a­tions of death row inmates. With each trou­bling case, it is becom­ing increas­ing­ly clear that our sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is so seri­ous­ly bro­ken that all exe­cu­tions should be stopped,” said Richard C. Dieter, DPIC Executive Director.

Kimbell, who main­tained his inno­cence through­out his incar­cer­a­tion, is the third death row exon­er­a­tion in 2002, and the fourth man to walk free from Pennsylvania’s death row since the state restored the death penal­ty in 1974. The first 2002 exoneree was Juan Melendez, a Florida man who spent near­ly two decades on death row before a judge ordered his release. The court deter­mined that pros­e­cu­tors in Melendez’s orig­i­nal tri­al with­held crit­i­cal evi­dence, there­by under­min­ing con­fi­dence in the orig­i­nal ver­dict. Ray Krone, the nation’s 100th exoneree and the sec­ond death row inmate to be freed this year, was released last month in Arizona after DNA tests exclud­ed him from the crime.

In addi­tion to the nation’s 101 death row exon­er­a­tions, rev­e­la­tions from state and inde­pen­dent stud­ies show­ing unfair­ness in the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem have con­tributed to a con­tin­u­ing decline in sup­port for the death penal­ty. Last month, the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment released a series of 85 rec­om­men­da­tions result­ing from the nation’s most thor­ough review of the death penal­ty. The Commission’s com­pre­hen­sive pro­pos­als — which include sharply reduc­ing the num­ber of crimes eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty from 20 to five, lim­it­ing the use of jail­house infor­mants, set­ting stan­dards to ensure ade­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for defen­dants, and video­tap­ing inter­ro­ga­tions of mur­der sus­pects — aim to pro­tect inno­cent inmates from exe­cu­tion and to ensure improved fair­ness for defen­dants fac­ing cap­i­tal charges. Illinois Governor George Ryan, whose con­cerns about the issue of inno­cence led him to declare a ground­break­ing mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, appoint­ed the Commission after Illinois had released 13 inno­cent inmates from death row in the same time that it had executed 12. # # #