Entries tagged with “Jailhouse informants”
Issues
Oct 05, 2021
Florida Supreme Court Denies Challenge to Death-Row Prisoner James Dailey’s Conviction, Finds Evidence of Innocence ‘Immaterial’ or ‘Inadmissible’
Calling his evidence of innocence either immaterial or inadmissible, the Florida Supreme Court on September 23, 2021 denied death-row prisoner James Dailey’s (pictured) post-conviction challenge to his conviction for the 1985 murder of a teenage girl. By a vote of 6 – 1, the court upheld Dailey’s conviction, ruling that a sworn declaration by Dailey’s co-defendant Jack Pearcy that he alone had committed the murder was inadmissible and could not provide a legal basis for a new trial. The court…
Issues
Sep 23, 2021
Florida Supreme Court Denies James Dailey’s Innocence Challenge to His Conviction and Death Sentence
Calling his evidence of innocence either immaterial or inadmissible, the Florida Supreme Court on September 23, 2021 denied death-row prisoner James Dailey’s post-conviction challenge to his conviction for the 1985 murder of a teenage girl. Over a strong dissent by Justice Jorge Labarga, the Court ruled that a sworn declaration by Jack Pearcy, later recanted, that he alone had committed the murder, was inadmissible and could not provide a legal basis to overturn Dailey’s conviction. It also…
Issues
Aug 16, 2021
NBC’s ‘Dateline’ Investigates the Wrongful Capital Conviction of Death-Row Exoneree Walter Ogrod
NBC’s true crime series, Dateline, featured an episode on August 13, 2021 on the wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration of former Philadelphia death-row prisoner Walter Ogrod (pictured). The episode, entitled “The Investigation,” is part of an NBC News series called “Justice for All” that reports on wrongful convictions and the U.S. criminal legal system. For the report, NBC News anchor Lester Holt interviewed Ogrod, the mother and stepfather of 4‑year-old victim Barbara Jean Horn…
Issues
Aug 09, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 3, 2020
NEWS (8/6/20) — Connecticut: The Connecticut Supreme Court granted a new trial to former death-row prisoner Lazale Ashby. The court ruled that the prosecution had violated Ashby’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel “by using a jailhouse informant … to deliberately elicit certain incriminating statements from the defendant.” The court said that the informant, who had a past history of providing assistance to prosecutors, had been acting as an agent of the state when he extracted incriminating…
Issues
Jun 09, 2020
Walter Ogrod Exonerated After 23 Years on Pennsylvania’s Death Row
Twenty-eight years after Philadelphia prosecutors first sought to take his life for the murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn, Walter Ogrod (pictured, second from right, with members of his defense team) has been exonerated from Pennsylvania’s death row. In a dramatic virtual hearing on June 5, 2020 that was attended by Ogrod, his family, Barbara Jean’s mother, counsel, and the media, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Shelley Robins New granted a joint motion by prosecutors and…
Issues
Jun 01, 2020
One Day After Exposé of Informant Wins Journalism Award, Florida Trial Court Denies James Dailey’s Innocence Claim
A Florida judge has denied death-row prisoner James Dailey’s motion for a new trial on May 29, 2020, ruling that no new admissible evidence supported Dailey’s claim of innocence. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa’s decision came just one day after journalist Pamela Colloff won a National Magazine Award for her investigation of a notorious jailhouse informant who provided key testimony against Dailey. At a hearing in March, Dailey’s attorneys had hoped to present testimony from his…
Issues
May 01, 2017
BOOKS: “The Trials of Walter Ogrod” Chronicles Pennsylvania Possible Innocence Case
Walter Ogrod was convicted and sentenced to death in Philadelphia in 1996 for the 1988 murder of a 4‑year-old girl, whose body was found in a discarded television box. Ogrod, who is developmentally disabled, has long maintained his innocence, but despite significant irregularities in the case and amidst allegations of official misconduct, local prosecutors have fought efforts to obtain DNA testing of the physical evidence and to investigate the role a discredited prison informant played in…
Issues
Jun 21, 2004
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…