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Harold C. Wilson was convicted of the ax murders of Dorothy Sewell, 64, her nephew, Tyrone Mason, 33, and Mason's girlfriend, Cynthia Goines, 40.  The murders occurred in the 1500 block of South Stillman St. in South Philadelphia.  Wilson received three death sentences.  Wilson was retried in 2003, but the trial resulted in a mistrial.  At his third trial in 2005, DNA evidence was presented for the first time.  Tests revealed that blood found at the crime scene came from a person other than Wilson or the three victims.  The jury deadlocked three times, but then came back with a unanimous verdict.  According to Wilson, one could discern from their faces the three jurors who held out.  “It was some students on the jury that was studying, was going to a college for DNA.”  The jury's verdict was “not guilty” on all charges.

One of the reasons Wilson got a new trial is because a court found that the prosecutor at his first trial, Jack Mahon, had used racial bias to eliminate black jurors.  Mahon had made a training video on jury selection in which he advised prosecutors to keep poor blacks off juries.  He also said, “You don't want smart people, because smart people will analyze the hell out of your case.  They have a higher standard.  They hold you up to a higher standard.  They hold the courts up to a higher standard, because they are intelligent people.  They take those words ‘reasonable doubt,’ and they actually try to think about them.  And you don't want those people.  Bad luck with teachers, bad luck with social workers, bad luck with – intelligent doctors are bad. I always feel doctors are bad, too.”  (DemocracyNow) (Mahon Video)

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