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Laughman, who was 24 with an IQ of 70, confessed to the rape and murder of 85-year-old Edna Laughman, a distant relative.  He was convicted largely on the testimony of State Trooper John J. Holtz who was later discredited for accepting money from a crime writer in another murder case, and Janice Roadcap, a state police chemist accused of doctoring records in a third murder case.  Roadcap suggested that antibiotics Edna was taking at the time of her death changed the blood type of the semen evidence from Barry's type B, to type A.

The prosecution argued that Barry had killed Edna on the night of Aug. 12, but Elwood Bollinger and his girlfriend, Patricia Harrison, reported seeing Edna on the morning of the 13th, while on their way a medical appointment.  Barry's attorney presented evidence that Harrison had an appointment on the 13th.  The prosecution also presented evidence that an allegedly three-finger grip mark on Edna was made by Barry because Barry had an injured pinky finger.  Barry served 16 years of a life sentence before DNA tests exonerated him.  (IP149) (Patriot-News)  [9/05]

John Dolenc was convicted of murdering his wife, Patricia.  The couple had separated for a week, but agreed to meet in Bridgeville on Saturday night, July 5.  Dolenc said Patricia did not show up.  The prosecution argued that she did show up, and Dolenc murdered her that night.  Dolenc spent that night barhopping in Bridgeville with his uncle.  He was able to prove that he had been at some bars, although police did not check them all.  Even if they did, the prosecution later argued that he would have had time to murder his wife between some of the visits.

Patricia was found dead on July 8, three days later, in a parking lot behind her apartment.  She appeared to be the victim of a sexual assault.  A pathologist testified that Patricia probably was dead for less than 72 hours.  Her body was still warm and rigor mortis -- which usually disappears within 12 hours of death -- was still present.  Two of Dolenc's relatives later told a private investigator that they saw Patricia on July 7 in an Oakdale bank.  Receipts show that Patricia and one of her aunts conducted business in the bank that day.  Two other acquaintances also said they saw Patricia on July 7 at a store where she bought two cans of tuna. One of the men who saw her there said he also had beer and pizza with her later that day at a local pub.

Not long after Patricia’s death, a former boyfriend of hers named Ed Zombeck began to involve himself in the case, telling Dolenc that he was conducting his own investigation.  At the time, Dolenc did not know that his wife's father had reported Zombeck to the police for threatening her after she broke off their relationship.  Thanks to Zombeck and Mt. Lebanon police, Dolenc said he learned about the crime scene and other elements of the murder that police later said only the killer would know.  "Ed Zombeck kept turning up during the investigation like a bad penny," one Mt. Lebanon police officer said later.

Six months after the murder, police charged Zombeck with the crime after a federal drug agent told them that Zombeck's wife had screamed "tell them you did it" in the background as the agent and Zombeck were talking on the telephone.  The charges were dismissed later that day.  Zombeck denied involvement.  He said his wife had mental problems and made the statement during a domestic dispute.  Charges were not filed against Dolenc until 1981.  They were then dismissed for insufficient evidence following a coroner's inquest.  Eight months later, charges were re-filed and Dolenc was tried six years after the murder.

At trial, the prosecutor suggested some of the blood found on Patricia, belonged to Dolenc.  However, both shared the same blood type.  The prosecutor paraded a series of witnesses who testified about the couple's marital problems.  He pounded away at minor inconsistencies in statements Dolenc had given police about his movements on the Saturday night when Patricia was allegedly murdered.  While Dolenc claimed he was with his uncle that night, his uncle testified he had suffered a brain injury since the murder and could not remember dates, times or events.  Dolenc’s sister possessed a bracelet owned by his dead wife.  Both Dolenc and his sister said it was a gift Patricia had given her shortly before she died.

Dolenc's lawyer did not yet know about the four people who claim to have seen Patricia after the prosecution said she was dead.  But he did get the Allegheny County Coroner to admit that it was unlikely her body had been in the parking lot for three days.  Dolenc sought DNA tests on blood found at the crime scene.  The state opposed the tests and maintained that the finding of a third person’s blood would not prove Dolenc’s innocence.  Dolenc, then 54, died in prison of natural causes on Dec. 13, 2007.  (Point Park Univ)  [10/07]

Steven Slutzker was convicted of the murder of twenty-nine-year-old John Mudd.  Slutzker was a suspect in the murder because he had had an affair with Mudd’s wife, Arlene.  However, Slutzker had a clear alibi that put him miles away from the killing.  Slutzker was in McKeesport with alibi witnesses, his van there was covered with newly fallen snow, and there were no foot tracks near the van or near his home across the street from the murder scene.  At the time of the murder, the victim’s son, John Mudd, Jr, was five years old.  In 1990, 15 years later, Mudd, Jr. claimed he had a flashback episode in which repressed memories of the murder flooded his mind.  In the flashback he identified Slutzker as the killer.  In 1992, a prosecutor used Mudd Jr.’s testimony and some questionable eyewitness testimony to convict Slutzker of the murder.

Other evidence casts doubt on Slutzker’s conviction:  (1) Domenic Mangano, a Wilkinsburg police officer said Mudd Jr. was asleep on a couch when he arrived.  He added the child didn't wake up until after he carried him down the street.  He said Mudd Jr. had no idea his father had been killed.  (2) Mudd Jr. said he did not know who Slutzker was until police suggested his name to him.  However, a counselor from Catholic Social Services said she was present when Mudd Jr.'s relatives repeatedly told him Slutzker killed his father.  She said Mudd Jr. told her that when he turned 21 years old, "he would kill him."  Mudd, Jr. was 21 years old when he reported his flashback episode.

At trial, Slutzker’s lawyer failed to present Slutzker’s alibi witnesses.  The lawyer told Slutzker that his money would be better spent hiring experts to combat Mudd Jr.'s testimony than on paying to transport his alibi witnesses from their home in Texas.  According to a juror, the jury did not believe Mudd Jr.’s testimony.  But they did believe the testimony of a cop and a neighbor who said they saw Slutzker talking with Arlene Mudd in front of her house immediately after the murder.  Withheld police reports showed that Arlene was actually seen talking to a different neighbor.

In 2003, Slutzker was granted a retrial because his lawyer failed to call key alibi witnesses and because the prosecution withheld numerous police reports from the defense.  At retrial in 2007, the alibi witnesses provided videotaped testimony.  But the retrial jury apparently believed Mudd Jr.  The prosecutor suggested that Slutzker left foot tracks in the snow, but they were blown away by the wind.  The retrial jury convicted Slutzker.  According to a juror, the jury “didn’t convict on any one thing, but how it all fit together.”  The loss of 30-plus years since the murder seemed to diminish the value of Slutzker’s alibi witnesses and to increase the willingness of prosecution witnesses to remember events falsely.  (Point Park Univ)  [10/07]

Charles J. "Zeke" Goldblum was convicted of stabbing to death George Wilhelm on the top deck of a parking garage in downtown Pittsburgh.  It was established that Wilhelm drove his car into the Seventh Avenue garage with Clarence Miller in the front passenger seat and Zeke Goldblum in the rear seat behind Wilhelm.  The stabbing appeared to be unplanned as it occurred at a relatively public site at 9:15 p.m. on a night when all the downtown stores were open.  In addition, the killer did not bring a weapon, but used half a grass shear that had been in Wilhelm’s car.  Under Pennsylvania law, two persons cannot be legally culpable in the unplanned murder unless both participated in the assault.

Police were summoned to the garage at 9:20 p.m. and found Wilhelm one floor below the top deck, lying on a walkway to a connecting building.  He had been stabbed or slashed 26 times.  Wilhelm told police officer Thomas Pobicki, “Clarence--Clarence Miller did this to me.”  Wilhelm made no mention of Goldblum or of a second assailant, even though he spoke of his wounds and remained conscious for some time after implicating Miller.  Wilhelm did not die until 12:12 a.m.

After his arrest, Miller implicated Goldblum in the murder in order to escape punishment himself.  Miller testified that Goldblum stabbed Wilhelm after the two exited the car.  However, there was blood spatter from left to right along the dashboard, indicating that the front seat passenger stabbed Wilhelm while he was in the car.  This spatter evidence was withheld at trial.  Miller claimed various financial motives for Goldblum wanting to kill Wilhelm, none of which could be corroborated.

Wilhelm had given a substantial sum of money to Miller in return for a piece of land that he was supposed to get in North Carolina.  Miller claimed to have access to government land through political connections in U.S. Senator Schweiker’s office.  The FBI had knowledge of this deal after Wilhelm complained to them, even though at Miller’s urging, Wilhelm subsequently withdrew his complaint.  Wilhelm and Miller met the day of the murder, along with Goldblum, who as an attorney acted as Miller’s legal counsel.  According to Goldblum, Wilhelm found out that Miller had deceived him, and was irately yelling at Miller just prior to his stabbing.

Goldblum was no angel.  He had hired Miller in Nov. 1975 to burn down a restaurant he owned, the Fifth Avenue Inn, near downtown Pittsburgh.  Goldblum initially provided a false alibi for Miller regarding Wilhelm’s murder, because he felt beholden to him, and did not want Miller turning on him.  Prior to his trial, a former inmate and an undercover policeman approached Goldblum and offered to kill Miller.  Goldblum foolishly agreed to this solicitation, and this agreement was damaging to him at trial.  Both Miller and Goldblum were convicted of Wilhelm’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.  Since Goldblum’s conviction, three forensic experts have come forward to support his claim of innocence, along with his original prosecutor and trial judge.  (www.freezeke.org)  [3/07]

Paul Ford, Jr. was convicted of murdering Maurice Price. Price, 25, was shot to death outside a Monview Heights tenement in West Mifflin. The 410 lb. Price had gone there with $250 to buy a quarter ounce of cocaine. Price could not find his regular dealer so he asked people milling around if anyone else could make the sale.

Initial descriptions of the assailant do not match Ford and the only evidence against him is testimony from three admitted liars. Seven people, including two jail guards, say that Joey Jones told them that he was the killer. Two others gave descriptions of the killer that match Jones. However, on the witness stand Jones fingered Ford. Nikela Carrington, a crack addict, told police she watched Ford rob and kill Price. When asked where she was at the time of the shooting, Carrington wavered, but eventually settled on saying she was in her apartment. However, from her apartment a neighboring building would have blocked her view. Nicole Bennett, a friend of Carrington's and a fellow drug user, denied seeing the shooting for six days, then told police she saw Ford pull the trigger. She later admitted conspiring with Carrington to extort money from Ford by threatening to say that he did it.

Ford, a street-level drug dealer, admitted being at the scene of the killing with some associates but denied involvement in it. He believes he was targeted because eight years previously his father had shot the lead investigator, Detective Gary Tallent. Ford’s attorney, Robert Garshak, did not call a number of relevant witnesses at trial because he said the prosecution’s case was so weak that he did not need them.   (JD31 p3) (Point Park Univ)  [4/08]

Johnson was convicted of murdering Verna Robinson, a police informant.  Robinson was willing to implicate a member of the Hazelwood Mob in a drive-by shooting.  She was the first person ever placed in the Pittsburgh Police Witness Protection Program.  She later refused protection because she did not have money to pay the rent and utilities on the apartment police found for her.  She moved back to her mother’s house in the heart of Hazelwood Mob territory, where she was killed.

Johnson’s conviction was due to the testimony of Dolly McBryde, an alleged eyewitness to Robinson’s murder.  McBryde was a crack cocaine addict and her criminal offenses included fraud, theft, prostituting her children, and using them to steal.  While under police protection she was caught shoplifting at a drug store and stealing furnishings from a safe-house hotel.

Initially, McBryde said she witnessed the murder by hiding in bushes in front of the house at which it occurred.  However, after she realized her view would have been obstructed from that spot, she changed her testimony and stated she witnessed the murder from a second location.  However, the property owner said McBryde could not have been at the second location, as the gate to it was locked, and the owner had lost the key to the gate 10 years prior to the murder.

McBryde testified she heard one shot, then another as much as two minutes later.  She said the victim did not fall to the ground until after the second shot.  Other witnesses said the shots were simultaneous and a forensic expert said either one of them would felled the victim immediately.  McBryde’s name does not appear on any initial police reports about the murder.  McBryde came forward two and a half weeks afterwards, when she was caught shoplifting and arrested on several outstanding warrants, most of them theft-related.

Besides Johnson, two other men were charged with Robinson’s murder.  Unlike Johnson, these other men could afford better lawyers who were successfully able to attack McBryde’s eyewitness account.  Both men were acquitted after Johnson was found guilty.  (Point Park Univ)  [10/07]

Cox was convicted of murdering Brian Roberts.  Ten days before his murder, Roberts pointed an automatic weapon at a police officer and was arrested.  He was carrying 34 rocks of crack cocaine.  He walked free after telling police the gun and drugs belonged to Roland Cephas.  Cephas was busted and vowed retaliation.

Police arrested Cox after an imprisoned informant implicated him in exchange for money and freedom.  Police also claimed Cox confessed during interrogation.  Cox admitted confessing, but said police told him he would get the death penalty if he did not confess and would only prosecute him on a self-defense charge if he did confess.  The informant said he saw Cox shoot Roberts at close range in the chest.  Cox confessed to shooting Roberts from a distance in the chest.  However, Roberts was actually shot in the back.

After the conviction, numerous witnesses have come forward indicating that neither Cox nor the informant were at the murder scene and that Cephas had killed Roberts in retaliation.  Cephas and the informant were murdered in 1997 and 1999 during a wave of street gang killings.  Cox is still imprisoned in 2006.  (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)  [12/06]

Joseph was convicted of murdering his sister’s boyfriend, Richard Pearson.  Joseph claimed he was having an argument with Pearson, a known drug dealer, when a masked gunman interrupted them.  Joseph managed to escape, but the gunman shot Pearson.  No murder weapon was ever found.  During an interrogation, Detective Richard McDonald got 18-year-old Joseph to sign some notes allegedly to verify when they were taken.  Joseph’s signatures were later used in court to suggest he signed a confession.

While in prison, Joseph met another inmate, Jacques Maynor, who had witnessed the murder.  At the time of the murder he had told police that he witnessed Joseph run from his sister’s apartment, and then watched a masked man gun down Pearson.  Prosecutors were required to turn over to the defense all exculpatory evidence, and had withheld this report at Joseph’s trial.  As of 2006, the issue is being appealed.  (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)  [3/07]

Michael Dirago was convicted in 1991 of the 1985 murder of his 23-year-old girlfriend, Yvonne Davi.  Davi's body had been found near the Delaware River.  The conviction was secured by John Hall, a career prison informant and star witness who unexpectedly came forward just a few days before Dirago's then scheduled trial in Bucks County, PA.  Hall said Dirago told him about the crime when they were both in the Bucks County Jail.

Hall’s testimony placed the murder on the New Jersey side of the bridge on which, he claimed, the victim had been killed.  Dirago was actually convicted in Burlington County, NJ, but only Hall's testimony places the murder there.  Hall gave a riveting account of the murder on the bridge, and of the victim gurgling as she died.  C. Theodore Fritsch, then the chief deputy DA of Bucks County, wrote that Hall’s “unsolicited cooperation,” had changed the case from one with a “rather slim” chance of conviction to a “strong one from the prosecution standpoint.”  Howard Barman, then deputy attorney general of New Jersey wrote that Hall was “a remarkable person” who, but for an alcohol problem, “would probably be a significant member of society.”  (City Paper) (GNS)  [3/08]

Frank Chester was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Anthony Milano.  Chester, 19, and a friend, Rick Laird were at a Tullytown bar where they met Milano.  Laird, Chester, and Milano then left the bar.  While on the way to a friend's house, Laird, drunk and strung out on drugs, lost his temper when Milano wanted to go home.  In a fit of rage, Laird dragged Milano to a nearby wooded area off of Rt. 13 and knifed him in the throat.  Milano was soon dead.  Chester says he saw the murder as it was happening and ran through the woods to a friend's house, shaken by what he witnessed.

After the murder, Chester cooperated with the police.  He produced the clothes he was wearing at the time (which had not one drop of Milano's blood on them), and gave the police the names of all his friends and the patrons in the bar.  He even submitted to a lie detector test, which he passed with flying colors.  Laird had a previous arrest history for violent behavior.

Milano was a gay man who was learning to accept his identity.  When the DA learned this fact, he used Milano's homosexuality as the cause of his death.  Laird and Chester were depicted as hate mongers.  The press picked up on the DA’s depiction and joined in portraying the two as evil gay bashers.  The fact that Milano just happened to be gay did not enter the picture.  Both Laird and Chester landed on death row.  Laird has exonerated Chester from any responsibility for the murder.  (Source)  [2/07]

Steven Crawford was convicted in 1974 of murdering his neighbor and best friend, John Eddie Mitchell.  Crawford was 14 and Mitchell was 13 at the time of the crime.  Mitchell left home to turn in money he collected from his paper route.  He was later bludgeoned to death.  His body was found the next day under a car in a detached garage belonging to Crawford's parents.  Crawford's family lived on the 2300 block of North Fifth Street in Harrisburg.

Crawford's handprints were found on the blood splashed car in the garage, but state police chemist Janice Roadcap gave false testimony implying that Crawford had the victim's blood on his hands when he left the prints.  The handprints were the only physical evidence linking him to the murder.  The trial judge called it the "linchpin" of the case.  In Oct. 2001, a defense investigator found a photocopy of Roadcap's original notes, which exonerated Crawford.  Crawford was granted a new trial based on the notes, but the Commonwealth declined to retry him.  Crawford was released after serving 28 years of imprisonment.  Roadcap was a chemist for the state police from 1967 until her retirement in 1991, handling cases in 18 counties from the State Police crime lab in Harrisburg.  (Google)  [4/08]

Dr. Jay C. Smith was sentenced to death in 1985 for the 1979 murders of Susan Reinert and her two children.  Smith was the principal of Upper Merion High School (in Montgomery County) for 12 years and Reinert was a teacher there.  Reinert's fiancé, William Bradfield, was also a teacher at the same school as well as president of the Teacher's Union.  Bradfield was convicted in 1983 of conspiracy to murder Reinert and her children as he was named beneficiary of Reinert's life insurance.

Reinert was last seen alive driving away from her Ardmore home with her two children at 9:20 p.m. on Friday, June 22, 1979.  Her dead body was found in her car in a Harrisburg parking lot the following Monday morning.  Her two missing children are presumed dead.  An autopsy revealed she was badly beaten 24 to 36 hours before her death and that she died early Sunday morning from an injection of morphine.  It also revealed that she had sand between her toes implying she could have visited a beach area like Cape May, NJ.  In addition, she had written directions on her to an area just north of Cape May.  Cape May is approximately 100 miles southeast of Reinert's home, while Harrisburg is approximately 100 miles west.

Bradfield had an alibi from 11:15 p.m. Friday on, when he got together with three friends, reputable high school teachers, and left with them, spending the weekend in Cape May, NJ.  The prosecution did not believe that he could have traveled to Harrisburg during this period and it was alleged that Bradfield had employed Smith as Reinert's killer.

Smith was convicted of murdering Reinert and her two children in 1985.  At Smith's trial, the prosecutor did not call Bradfield as a witness, but instead called a series of witnesses who recounted their recollections of what Bradfield said.  The judge allowed this hearsay testimony after the prosecutor assured him that the state attorney general found that such testimony was allowed under the law.  A jailhouse informant, who had been imprisoned for perjury, claimed that Smith had confessed to the crime.  This informant was wired with a hidden recording device, but on every recording in which the informant brought up the subject with Smith, Smith stated that he had nothing to do with the Reinert murders.

The PA Supreme Court overturned Smith's conviction in 1992 because the judge permitted hearsay testimony, the police withheld evidence that sand was found between Reinert's toes, and five state troopers perjured themselves on this point.  The troopers did not want Smith's jury to hear about the sand as it allowed the defense to argue that Reinert had been in Cape May and that Bradfield had personally killed her.  The Court found the prosecution's conduct so egregious that it broke new legal ground and barred a retrial.

The chief case investigator, Trooper John J. Holtz, was later found to have accepted $50,000 from author Joseph Wambaugh for information on the Reinert investigation.  The money was provided on the condition that suspect Jay Smith be arrested.

Smith's exoneration should have undermined Bradfield's conspiracy conviction on the basis of insufficient evidence.  At Bradfield's trial, there was no direct evidence that he conspired with Smith, but without Smith, there is not even circumstantial evidence that he conspired with anyone.

Despite his excellent alibi, evidence suggests that Bradfield orchestrated Reinert's murder and tried to frame Smith for it.  Bradfield had warned associates that the evil Dr. Smith planned to kill Reinert for some time before the murder.  Smith was previously convicted of robbing a Sears store by posing as an armored car driver to collect the day's receipts.  Smith was due to be sentenced and imprisoned the same day and in the same city that Reinert's body was found, so it seemed that Bradfield used his last opportunity to kill Reinert and throw suspicion on Smith.  It seems doubtful that Smith, who had no motive for killing Reinert, would drive her car with her dead body to Harrisburg, then return home and drive his own car to his sentencing.

Bradfield died in prison in 1998.  The case is the subject of three books, Echoes in the Darkness by Joseph Wambaugh (1987), Engaged to Murder by a Philadelphia Inquirer editor (1988), and Principal Suspect by Smith's trial and appeal attorney (1996).  The case was also the subject of a TV mini-series.  [1/06]

David Gladden was convicted of beating and strangling to death 67-year-old M. Geneva Long.  He was convicted on the testimony of an alleged accomplice, James Carson, who now says his testimony was the product of police coercion.  Gladden has been mentally retarded since suffering a childhood head injury.  Police chose not to focus on an alternative suspect, Andrew Dillon, who at the time of Long’s murder was living in a room next to her.  By the time of Gladden’s trial, Dillon was suspected of killing four elderly women, not including Long.  Seven days after Gladden’s conviction, Dillon was charged with these murders when DNA results matched him to a victim.  Dillon later pleaded guilty to the murders.  One of these victims was stomped on, dumped on a bed, and set on fire--a manner of death identical to that of Long.

At trial, Gladden’s attorney pursued a defense that alleged that Carson was the killer.  The attorney did not try to implicate Dillon, because police had assured him that the DA had ruled Dillon out as a suspect.  In Feb. 2007, Gladden’s conviction was overturned and he was released from prison.  (Patriot-News)  [3/07]

Samuel Randolph IV was sentenced to death for a barroom shooting that killed Anthony Burton, 18, and Thomas Easter, 21.  The shooting occurred in Harrisburg at Todd and Pat's Hotel in the 1900 block of North Sixth Street.  It also left 5 others wounded.  Investigators initially had a difficult time finding a suspect because all the witnesses stated that the perpetrator wore a mask.  However, an individual who was facing unrelated criminal charges eventually came forward who was willing to identify Randolph as the perpetrator in exchange for a generous plea deal for himself.  This witness said he was able to identify Randolph because the perpetrator's mask had briefly slipped.  Despite his checkered past, Randolph insists he did not commit the crime.  On June 28, 2006, Pennsylvania Governor Rendell signed a death warrant for Randolph's execution.  (PADP) (Patriot-News)  [3/08]

Shortly after he was imprisoned on an unrelated charge, Yarris tried to obtain special treatment from police by claiming a former associate he thought was dead had kidnapped, raped, and killed Linda Mae Craig, a murder victim he read about in the newspaper.  The former associate was a drug dealer who Yarris thought had overdosed.  Yarris' plan went awry when the associate was located still alive with an airtight alibi—his brother had overdosed.

Police leaked to other inmates that Yarris was a snitch, and Yarris endured days of regular beatings and torture.  In an effort to save himself, he asked police what would happen if he had participated in the crime, but was not the murderer.  The beatings stopped, and Yarris was charged with capital murder.  A fellow inmate made a deal with the DA and began exchanging false information about Yarris in exchange for conjugal visits and reduced sentencing.  This inmate became one of the few witnesses to testify against Yarris at trial.  Yarris' alleged motive was that he was angry with his ex-girlfriend, and the victim allegedly looked like her.  Yarris' blood type also reportedly was among the 25% of the population that matched the actual perpetrator's blood type.  Yarris was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982.

Yarris was the first American to request DNA testing and he was the 140th American convict to be exonerated by DNA tests in part because the biological evidence was too small to test with early DNA technology.  Yarris was released in 2004.  Yarris currently resides in the UK and has authored a book there entitled Seven Days to Live to be published in July 2008.  (IP140) (Post-Gazette) (www.nickyarris.com)  [9/05]

As of Oct. 2007, Chadwick has been jailed for 12 1/2 years for civil contempt of court.  In July 1994, a court ordered him to deposit $2.5 million into a court bank account for use in his divorce settlement.  Chadwick contended that he did not have the money and forensic accountants could find no proof that he did.  Legally Chadwick can be held indefinitely.  Chadwick's attorney noted that if Chadwick had been convicted of stealing the money, he could have completed the maximum seven-year sentence years ago.

Chadwick once gave his ex-wife the respect of hating her for her misplaced avariciousness, but he has become too miserly to do even that.  "It took me a long time to forgive what she has done," he says. "I still have to work at that. My own religious faith says that if I expect forgiveness from others, I have to forgive."  (CJA)  [11/05]

After Alvin Davis was stabbed to death, investigators found bloody fingerprints on a window fan leading to his body.  Upper Darby Police Detective Anthony Paparo then matched the prints to Davis’ friend, Riky Jackson, finding at least 11 points of similarity.  Paparo had a fellow fingerprint examiner, Police Superintendent Vincent Ficchi double-check his work.  Ficchi concurred.  At trial, Papparo, Ficci, and another expert testified that the prints belonged to Jackson.  The defense had two retired FBI examiners testify that the prints did not match.  However, Davis was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Following the conviction, the defense experts filed a complaint with the International Association for Identification about the three prosecution experts.  The complaint triggered a review of the evidence by the FBI, which concurred that the prints did not match.  Because of the FBI’s finding, Jackson’s conviction was reversed and he was released from prison after serving more than 2 years of his sentence.  (Tribune)  [3/08]

Robert Norman Rivera was convicted in 2002 of murdering his 20-month-old daughter, Katelyn Selena Rivera.  On Aug. 10, 1999, Robert picked up Katelyn at her day care in Boothwyn, PA, took her to the zoo, to a restaurant, and to other places.  He then repeatedly tried to return her to her mother, Jennifer Helton, but Helton refused to take her.  Apparently, Helton wanted greater custody rights and wanted to prolong Rivera's care of her so she could argue that he did not return her.  Later that night Rivera took Katelyn to a tourist location (Longwood Gardens) and while there met a couple and ended up giving them custody of Katelyn as he had no money to continue caring for her.

Rivera was arrested in Boothwyn the next day, after traveling to Maryland, where he stayed overnight at the home of a former neighbor.  He told investigators how he gave Katelyn away and even accompanied them to Longwood Gardens.  Despite initial disbelief, Rivera's story checked out as far as investigators could determine.  Nevertheless, authorities began searching many areas where Rivera had been as though he had killed and buried Katelyn somewhere.  Despite 5000 man-hours of searches using cadaver detection dogs, no body was ever found.

On two separate occasions, a prison informant, William Lively, reported the locations of circumstantial physical evidence, which lead detective David Peifer then “found.” The first, a shovel, indicated that Rivera buried Katelyn near Elkton, Maryland after 10:15 p.m. on Aug. 10, 1999. The second set of evidence, a child’s shoe and sock, indicated Rivera buried Katelyn before 9:15 p.m. the same day near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Since it is highly unlikely that Rivera buried his alleged victim twice, the prosecution’s evidence indicates that Peifer had to have planted at least one set of evidence and that both Peifer and Lively perjured themselves. There are other indications that both sets of evidence were planted. Detective Peifer also presented a "confession" in which Rivera gave a non-incriminating answer on tape, which sounded incriminating because Peifer asserted that it is in response to an incriminating question that was given off tape. It later became known that Peifer testified, in 1982, against accused murderer Nick Yarris, a defendant who was sentenced to death, but exonerated by DNA evidence in 2004.

At trial, Rivera's attorney, G. Guy Smith, made no attempt to dispute the prosecution's evidence, and he even agreed to a stipulation by the prosecutor that on-tape statements made by Rivera confirmed that Detective Peifer had asked him incriminating questions off-tape.

Rivera was charged with capital murder in April 2000 and convicted of second-degree murder in Jan. 2002.  He was sentenced to life without parole.  Because the prosecution needed an additional felony conviction to bolster the severity of a murder conviction, the prosecution broke new legal ground and made Rivera become the first parent in Pennsylvania history to be convicted of kidnapping his own child.  The PA Supreme Court had ruled twice in the 1800's that a parent cannot be convicted of kidnapping his or her own child, but the kidnapping conviction has been upheld on appeal.  (www.freerobertrivera.org)  [12/05]

McCauley was convicted in 1989 of the 1977 murder of 21-year-old Devera Frink.  Frink had left her waitressing job at the Nittany Mall at 10 p.m. on June 25, 1977.  She was then seen hitchhiking, a few miles away, in State College at 11 p.m.  She was last seen alive about 15 minutes later in Boalsburg, a short distance from her apartment.  Some time later, at 1:30 a.m., a motorist found her body more than 50 miles away under the twin-span bridges of U.S. Route 322 at the Thompsontown exit.  She had been beaten, raped, and choked, but had been alive when she was thrown off one the bridges.  The bridge she was thrown off was 44 feet above where her body was found.

An initial suspect in the murder, Robert E. Brown, gave a false alibi, when questioned about the murder, then committed suicide three days later.  In 1983, McCauley, then imprisoned on an unrelated charge, was released on a furlough.  After failing to return, he faced escape charges.  In order to avoid returning to prison, McCauley tried to obtain a deal by claiming to know something about the Frink murder.  McCauley, who was 17 at the time of the murder, claimed to have accompanied Brown, then 40, and another suspect, Jesse Taylor, then 22, in Brown's van on the night of the murder.  He said the pair picked up Frink at the Nittany Mall and drove her around drinking and smoking pot for several hours.  He said he was passing out when Taylor became violent and started raping Frink.  Brown allegedly held her down.  McCauley said the pair later took her out of the van and threw her off a bridge as he peered out the rear window of the van.  He could not describe Frink or the distinctive red-and-white outfit she was wearing.

For his "confession" and willingness to testify against Taylor, McCauley did not receive a plea deal that was acceptable to him.  Even if McCauley's confession was true, his mere presence in the van did not implicate him in the murder.  Some years later, in 1989, he was prosecuted for the murder under the felony murder rule.  Under this rule, he could be guilty of felony murder if he participated in a felony which led to the murder.  Thus if he participated in the kidnapping or rape, both felonies, the state could convict him of murder.  However, McCauley was not charged and could not be convicted of either felony, as the statute of limitations for them had expired.  McCauley had since recanted his confession.

At McCauley's trial, state police chemist Janice Roadcap testified that a hair found on the victim's leg matched one of McCauley's chest hairs. When jurors were asked why they convicted McCauley, several of them, without prompting, cited the hair as the most compelling piece of evidence against McCauley.  Roadcap's testimony in other cases has since come under scrutiny because it led to wrongful convictions.  In 2005, DNA testing was done on the hair.  Results showed that it did not come from McCauley.  DNA testing was subsequently done on semen stains found on the victim's clothing.  Tests showed that it had come from two unknown males.  As of 2008, McCauley is petitioning for a new trial.  (Patriot-News)  [6/08]

DiStefano was convicted of the murder of his former high school girlfriend, Christine Burgerhoff, 24, of Eynon.  Burgerhoff's nude body was found in a parking lot off Keyser Avenue in Scranton on April 6, 1996.  Police said she was killed hours earlier at the Reflex Center in Clarks Summit, where she worked.  Police labeled the Reflex Center a house of prostitution masquerading as a massage parlor.  After an 11-hour interrogation filled with promises of leniency and direct and implied threats of harm, DiStefano signed a confession written by detectives.  Following his arrest, he languished in jail until he was convicted of third degree murder in Feb. 2000.  He was sentenced to 15 to 40 years in prison.  In 2001, the PA Superior Court reversed his conviction on the grounds that his confession was coerced.  The state could not realistically retry him without a confession, but they got him to plead no contest to misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter.  The case against DiStefano was unusual in that it began as a capital case, but ended as a misdemeanor case.

DiStefano has since published a well-reviewed book about his case entitled Anything You Say: The True Story of One Man's Ordeal With A Derailed Murder Investigation.  (Book Review)  [12/06]

Two women on were sexually assaulted on jogging trails in separate incidents that occurred on June 5, 2000 and June 26, 2001.  The assailant used the same phrase in both attacks when he asked them to expose their breasts.  One of the women picked Charles “Ted” Dubbs out from a set of 403 mug shots.  The second woman then identified him from a set of six similar looking photos.  A third woman then identified Dubbs at trial as the man she saw driving away from one of the assaults.  She initially said the attacker drove a two-tone gray pickup, which Dubbs did not own.

Dubbs had a seemingly solid alibi for the first assault, and a decent but less reliable alibi for the second assault.  However, he was convicted in May 2002 of both assaults on the grounds that the same man must have committed both.  Dubbs was sentenced to 12 to 40 years of imprisonment.  Following Dubbs’ imprisonment, two other women were sexually assaulted on local jogging trails in 2002 and 2003.

In Nov. 2006, another man, Wilbur Cyrus Brown II, pleaded guilty to five sexual assaults in neighboring Dauphin County.  He then admitted committing the four jogging trail assaults.  He pleaded guilty to the last two trail assaults, but Dubbs’ prosecutor, Heidi Eakin, refused to admit that Brown committed the two earlier assaults for which Dubbs was convicted.  She insisted Dubbs committed those crimes.  Brown looks almost identical to Dubbs and owned a two-toned gray pickup described by a witness to one of the assaults.  Eakin said Brown was trying to “get back at her” and theorized that he was a copycat assailant.  The prosecutor’s intransigence forced Dubbs to remain in prison an extra year.

On Sept. 5, 2007, a detective videotaped an interview with Brown in which Brown provided "significant undisclosed details regarding those assaults."  After watching the interview video, the victims were no longer sure that Dubbs was their assailant.  On Sept 11, 2007, a judge vacated Dubbs’ convictions and released him.  Prosecutors said the new evidence prevents them from retrying Dubbs.  Brown cannot be prosecuted for Dubbs’ alleged assaults because the statute of limitations for them has expired.  (Patriot-News)  [9/07]

Thomas "Hank" Hughes Kimbell, Jr. was sentenced to death for the 1994 murders of his neighbor, Bonnie Lou Dryfuse, 34, her daughters, Jacqueline Mae Dryfuse, 7, and Heather Sue Dryfuse, 4, and their cousin, Stephanie Herko, 5. The murders occurred at the Dryfuses' mobile home at 100 Ambrosia Road in Pulaski Township. Bonnie was stabbed 28 times, Jacqueline, 14 times, Heather, 16 times, and Stephanie, 6 times. Bonnie’s husband, Thomas “Jake” Dryfuse discovered the bodies shortly after 3 p.m. Mary Herko, who was Stephanie's mother and Jake's sister, had been talking on the telephone with Bonnie at 2:20 p.m. and testified at trial that Bonnie said she had to go because "someone is pulling up the driveway" (possibly the murderer). Previously, Herko had told the police that Bonnie had said, "Jake is pulling up the driveway." The defense was not allowed to impeach Herko’s testimony to bring out the fact that Bonnie had indicated her husband rather than just “someone.” The husband, Jake, claimed to be elsewhere at the time the phone call ended.

Jake was initially regarded as a suspect. However, the police could not figure out how he could have washed up after the murders and gotten rid of his bloody clothes. When police arrived at the murder scene, Jake had a little blood on his hands. Jake said he got it from touching Heather’s arm, thinking she was alive. However, DNA tests showed that the blood was from Jacqueline, not Heather. Kimbell’s defense unwisely brought up this discrepancy at trial. In rebuttal, the prosecution secured the judge’s permission to introduce crime scene photos. While the prosecution had a point in that blood flew everywhere and blood from one victim could have gotten on Jake’s hands from another victim’s body, the prejudicial effect of the photos far outweighed any probative value. The jury was made to feel that somebody had to pay for this terrible crime.

Kimbell’s conviction was overturned in 2000 because of the limitation placed on his defense in questioning Herko’s testimony. For retrial, the defense hired Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist. Omalu told the defense lawyers, "Show me the hands of the suspects and I'll show you the hands of the killer." Crime scene photographs that included Jake's hands were then examined and showed fingernail abrasions on the back of his hands as well as abrasions and bruises on his palms. Kimbell was small, 5’4” tall and weighed 120 lbs. He was also a moderate hemophiliac who bled profusely when cut. It is difficult to understand how he could have tangled with 250 lb. Bonnie Dryfuse and not sustained detectable injuries. Kimbell was acquitted at his 2002 retrial. Kimbell's case is profiled in the second half of the book The Death Penalty on Trial by Bill Kurtis.  [5/08]

Justin Kirkwood was convicted of robbing a craft store in New Castle of $130.  Two clerks identified him as the robber despite discrepancies between Kirkwood and the initial descriptions the clerks gave of the robber.  At trial, Kirkwood had seven alibi witnesses, including one, Bill Fitts, the owner of the largest car dealership in New Castle.  Fitts said he called the Kirkwood household at 7 p.m., which was the time of the robbery.  He called to inform the Kirkwoods that he had arranged for them the use of a Lincoln Town Car for an upcoming wedding.  Fitts said Justin Kirkwood answered the phone when he called.  Fitts knew Justin, because he employed Justin’s father.  He also knew it was 7 p.m. because as soon as he hung up, he watched the lottery picks on television.

On cross-examination, the prosecutor, DA Birgitta Tolvanen, displayed a copy of Fitts’ phone records and brought out the fact that there was no listing of the phone call on them.  Fitts had no explanation for the apparent discrepancy.  The defense attorney complained that the records were not made available in pretrial discovery, but did not ask for a mistrial or otherwise object.  The DA did not introduce the records into evidence.  On closing, the DA referred to the records as undermining Fitts’ credibility.  Thinking the alibi witnesses were probable liars, the jury convicted Kirkwood of armed robbery and he was sentenced to 3 1/2 to 7 years in jail.

Following the conviction, a copy of the phone records was obtained along with evidence that another suspect committed the crime.  Fitts’ phone call to the Kirkwood residence was not listed, because it was a local call and no local calls were listed in the records as they were free.  During appeals, the DA admitted she tricked Fitts with the phone records and knew they did not contain local calls and that she had misled the jury.  Kirkwood’s conviction was then overturned.  As of Sept. 2005, it is not known whether Kirkwood will be retried, but since the first trial the defense has gained additional evidence of innocence unrelated to the phone records.  (JD29 p7)  [2/07]

Counterman was sentenced to death for the arson murder of his three children.  The children perished in a fire at their row house home located at 436 Chestnut St. in Allentown.  On the morning of the fire, neighbors reported seeing Dennis in his back yard in his underwear screaming for help because his kids were inside.  The fire department believed that the fire was set and accelerants must have been used because of the speed with which the fire spread through the house.  Expert testimony has since shown that the type of sofa that was in the Counterman's house acts as its own accelerant, and that the fire theories relied upon by the local fire department were outdated and have long since been repudiated.

At trial, the prosecution suppressed exculpatory evidence, although it released some evidence in the middle of the trial when the defense team was too overwhelmed to review it.  Counterman’s six-year-old son, Christopher, had a history of fire starting and in fact had burn scars from a prior fire that he had started.  Christopher had set fire to the curtains in the house one month before.  The prosecution’s lead witness, Counterman's mentally retarded wife, told investigators at the time of the fire that Dennis was asleep when the fire started (he had worked the night shift the evening before) and that she had awakened him to alert him that the house was on fire.  Under the joint influence of police interrogation and heavy medication for severe burns, she subsequently gave a statement that Dennis had set the fire.  Counterman’s conviction was overturned in 2001 because the state withheld evidence of Christopher’s fire starting.  Rather than face the uncertainty of a new trial, Counterman agreed to a time served plea in which he did not have to admit guilt. He was released in Oct. 2006.  (TruthInJustice) (CounterPunch)  [1/07]

Manning was convicted of the third-degree murder of Harry Burley Jr.  Burley, 30, was fatally stabbed at a Sunoco gas station on Route 611 in Scotrun.  Burley was the boyfriend of Manning’s stepsister.  On Route 611 Burley and his friend Tyrone Bass, 30, were behind Manning in Bass’ car, and after Manning, then age 27, stopped for gas at the Sunoco, Bass and Burley pulled in behind him.  At trial, witnesses disputed events, but apparently Burley and Manning wrestled and punched each other for nearly two minutes.

The prosecution portrayed Manning as the aggressor, allegedly chasing Burley around Bass’s car despite the fact that Bass and Burley followed Manning into the gas station.  The prosecution also alleged that Manning produced a knife and was chasing Burley with it before stabbing him.  Manning claimed that Burley produced the knife and that Burley used it to slash at him.  Manning had cuts on his left hand that he said were from warding off the Burley’s slashes.  He said he managed to take possession of the knife, but he does not recall ever stabbing Burley with it.  He said he drove off unaware that Burley was fatally wounded.

The prosecution and its witnesses appeared to withhold two pieces of evidence:  what Bass saw and who held the knife.  Despite knowing that there was going to be some altercation, Bass claimed not to have witnessed much of the fight, and instead said he put his car seat back and turned up the car stereo.  One might presume that there was some improper behavior on Burley’s part that Bass did not want to reveal.  Secondly, the prosecution found fingerprints on the knife handle, but refused to determine who the prints belonged to, other than acknowledging that they did not belong to Manning.  The prosecution thus left open the possibility that they belonged to Burley and that Burley had initiated a knife attack on Manning.

Manning did not seem entirely truthful in claiming ignorance about how Burley was stabbed, but the worst case, and most plausible scenario is that Manning acted in self-defense and stabbed Burley.  Self-defense is allowed under the law and is not considered murder.  Manning was sentenced to 12 to 30 years in prison.  In 2002, an appeals court overturned Manning’s conviction because the prosecutor made a prejudicial statement during his closing argument.  In 2004 it was reported that Manning pleaded guilty to a voluntary manslaughter charge that carried a four to eight year sentence.  Since Manning had already served more than the minimum four years, he was placed on parole.  (Manning Website) (Patrick Crusade)  [7/07]

Gerald C. Wentzel was convicted in 1947 of the strangulation murder of Mrs. Miriam Green, a 29-year-old divorcee. Green was last seen entering her apartment on the early evening of Friday, Dec. 6, 1946.  Green’s mother said her daughter had planned to visit her that Friday, but she did not visit, nor did she call to say why.  Green did not report for work Saturday morning, nor did she call in sick.  The thermostat for her apartment building was located in her apartment.  She had diligently taken care of resetting the thermostat after the furnace went off, but had not that weekend.  Because of the cold, neighbors had knocked on her door several times during the weekend, but had gotten no response.  Finally, on Monday afternoon, Dec. 7, neighbors entered her apartment and found her dead.

 Wentzel, who was married, had been seeing the victim four or five times a week. He told police he had gone to Green’s apartment on Sunday night, found her dead, and left without reporting her death.  He had been on a hunting trip 200 miles away and had a solid alibi from Thursday until Sunday night.

 At trial a medical doctor testified.  After police found Green’s body, they asked this doctor to determine if she was still alive.  The doctor testified he did not believe the victim had been dead more than 12 hours, and thus could have died Sunday night.  On cross-examination he admitted he had never done work on corpses, thus he had no experience in determining time of death.

 The coroner’s physician then testified.  He presented gruesome autopsy photos of the victim to the jury.  He felt the victim had died 12 to 24 hours before he examined her at an autopsy Monday night.  However, on cross-examination he agreed the victim could have been dead for 48 hours or 72 hours.

 The defense presented the victim’s undertaker who had 21 years of experience in handling corpses.  He felt the victim had been dead for 48 to 72 hours prior to Monday night.  When asked if she could have been dead for less than 48 hours, he indicated that in all his experience he had never seen a body as decayed as the victim’s who had been dead for less than 48 hours.  Wentzel was sentenced to 10 to 20 years of imprisonment.

 Wentzel’s appeal to the PA Supreme Court was denied, but a three-judge minority issued a vigorous dissent, agreeing with Wentzel’s claim that he was convicted on insufficient evidence.  In 1950, Clarence Woodley, an American soldier stationed in Germany, confessed to the murder while imprisoned on a robbery charge.  After investigating the confession, the local prosecutor rejected it as false.  Nevertheless, the publicity surrounding the confession stimulated an investigation by The Court of Last Resort.  Based on its conclusion that Wentzel’s alibi was solid and that the victim could not have died later than Saturday night, the PA Board of Pardons commuted Wentzel’s sentence to time served.  (Not Guilty)  [8/08]

Ernest H. Priovolos was convicted in 1990 of the 1986 murder of his former neighbor and girlfriend, Cheryl Succa.  Succa, 21, was found dead with a broken neck under a stone bridge in the 2400 block of Washington Lane in Huntingdon Valley.  Police originally classified her death as an accident.  They said that in the dark she probably stumbled down the bank of the creek. She may not have seen the large rocks and she hit her head.  However, after a career prison informant named John Hall came forward, police ruled her death a homicide.  Hall is known to have provided testimony in an extraordinary number of cases.  In 1994-95 alone he snitched out defendants in 5 murder cases.

Hall shared a prison cell with Priovolos in Bucks County Prison who was there on a drug related charge.  Hall testified that Priovolos bragged to him in the fall of 1988 that he knocked Succa over the bridge with a karate chop and took her purse after becoming angry that she would not have sex with him. Edward Bauman, another inmate and a reported follower of Hall, corroborated Hall's testimony.  At trial, a prosecution witness caused a mistrial by testifying that Priovolos had sexually assaulted her in 1985.  No charges were ever filed for the alleged assault.  At his second trial, Priovolos was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to 12 to 27 years of imprisonment.  The prosecution had sought the death penalty. (Google) (See also Walter Ogrod (Phila 1988), Michael Dirago (Bucks 1985)) [6/08]

Camiolo was charged in 1999 for the 1996 arson murder of his parents after they died from a fire in the home he shared with them.  He faced the death penalty.  Authorities also charged Camiolo with insurance fraud.  They said he set the fire to collect on a $400,000 inheritance.  Camiolo's chain smoking mother had presumably started the fire by dropping a cigarette or match on a sofa.  Camiolo tried to put out the fire by throwing a pitcher of water on it, but such an action only made the fire worse.  He said he told his semi-invalid parents to go out the back door and he called 911.  His mother made it out to the back porch, but later died from injuries sustained during the fire.  His father was found in an indoor bathroom and was pronounced dead soon afterwards.  Camiolo went out the front door and was retrieving clothes from a gym bag in his car when police arrived.  It was shortly before dawn and he was still in his underwear.  On arrival, the police witnessed the living room windows blow out as the fire reached flashover status.

Floor samples from the first floor where the fire originated tested positive for the presence of gasoline.  However, neither the carpet nor the padding above the floor tested positive for gasoline.  A volunteer firefighter, Steven Avato, who helped fight the fire, happened to have experience as a ATF arson investigator.  He was dumbfounded that Camiolo was charged and rocked the boat by publicly criticizing the arson charges.  The state thought Camiolo's exit through the front door was suspicious, but Avato thought it was common for people caught in fires to exit through the door they most commonly use, even if it is not the closest one.

A private investigator tracked down the contractor who built the house.  The contractor said the sealer used on the hardwood floors had been thinned with gasoline.  Lab tests were performed that revealed the presence of lead in the detected gasoline. Since leaded gas had not been sold for 15 years prior to the fire, investigators concluded that it could not have been used to start this fire.  The charges against Camiolo were dropped and he was released after 10 months of imprisonment.  For taking a stand in the case for which he was later proven right, Investigator Avato won an Investigator of the Year Award from the International Association of Arson Investigators.  (Forensic Files) (TruthInJustice)  [9/05]

Philadelphia patrolman James T. Morrow was murdered while tracking down a suspected robber who had been terrorizing the northeast section of the city.  Police, in efforts to solve the murder, arrested and extracted confessions from three different men over a several year period.  Two of the men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison before being exonerated.

During the first few months of the investigation, police arrested Joseph Broderick and quickly extracted a confession from him.  A few days later Broderick recanted.  When it became evident to officials that the confession was coerced, Broderick was released.

Approximately one year later police arrested another suspect, George Bilger, for Morrow’s murder.  Bilger then became the second man to confess to Morrow’s murder.  In his confession Bilger implicated a Philadelphia patrolman as an accomplice in the murder.  At his trial Bilger repeated his confession and the jury promptly found him guilty and recommended that he receive the death penalty.  However, the case against the patrolman Bilger had implicated quickly fell apart and that trial ended in an acquittal.  Bilger’s trial judge then became suspicious of the confession and ordered a new trial for Bilger.  At the second trial Bilger again pleaded guilty and the judge had no alternative but to sentence him; still unsure of the “confession”, the judge sentenced him to life in prison instead of giving him the death penalty.

Two years later the same type of robbery that had been attributed to Bilger began to reoccur in northeast Philadelphia.  Police received a tip that the robber was a known criminal named Jack Howard.  When police tracked Howard down, they mortally wounded him in a gunfight.  In Howard’s possession was the murder weapon that had been used to kill Officer Morrow.  Although police had no reason to believe that Howard had an accomplice, they staked out the hospital room of a friend of his, Elizabeth Morgan, to see if any of Howard’s acquaintances might visit her.  When Morgan’s brother, Rudolph Sheeler, came to visit his sister, he was immediately arrested and taken to police headquarters.  He was beaten for hours at a time over a two-week period.  He finally confessed to aiding Howard in the murder.  At trial Sheeler pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.  Bilger, who by this time had spent two years in prison, was pardoned and transferred to a mental hospital.

Twelve years passed until proof surfaced that Sheeler was at work hundreds of miles away at the time of Morrow’s murder.  A judge reviewed the case and found that key details of the case were contradicted by his confession, and that his confessions and court statements contradicted each other.  The judge concluded that Sheeler had been forced to confess because police were eager to free Bilger and therefore clear the reputation of the officer he had implicated – even though that officer had been acquitted.  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, calling the case “a black and shameful page in the history of the Philadelphia police department,” overturned Sheeler’s conviction and ordered his immediate release.  Four detectives and two superior officers were suspended for their roles in Sheeler’s coerced confession.  (Ramsey Dissertation) (Time)  [10/07]

Louis Clinton Thomas (aka Louis Mickens) was convicted of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old Edith Connor.  His conviction was based solely on the testimony of criminalist Agnes Mallatratt who worked at the Philadelphia crime lab.  Mallatratt testified to finding microscopic wax and bristle particles on the body similar to particles found in Lou's home.  The body was found in a debris-strewn alley behind and three houses down from Lou's shoe repair shop at 1109 N. 40th St.  The particles which were created in shoe repair work could presumably have blown down the alley from the shop.  No tests were done to prove otherwise.

Mallatratt testified that she was a graduate of Temple University; had done postgraduate work in zoology, biology, and botany; and that she was a hematologist.  Following trial, in 1967, she admitted she had not even graduated junior high school.  At Lou's retrial in 1969, Mallattrat's retired supervisor vouched for the veracity of her work, but neither of Lou's two juries knew that the person who collected and analyzed the evidence was a serial perjurer and a professional fraud.

In 1995 on his last day in office, Governor Casey reviewed 25 petitions but granted only Lou's petition for clemency.  Incoming Governor Tom Ridge (later U.S. Director of Homeland Security) had vowed never to release a lifer and refused to honor the granted clemency.  Nine years went by before a federal judge reversed the usurpation of Lou's constitutional right to clemency and ordered his immediate release.

Clemency is not a pardon but is the equivalent of parole.  After Lou's release, the parole board wanted Lou to admit to his crime and attend sex offender therapy.  For 40 years, Lou has insisted that he is innocent.  When Lou refused to admit that he was a sex offender, the Parole Board violated him for being a "denier," and threw the 76-year-old man back in prison.  Outraged by the Parole Board's conduct, a Federal Court ordered his release the next day.