Maryland Death Penalty Repeal Legislation

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty applauds Governor O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly for introducing and considering Senate Bill 276 and House Bill 295: Death Penalty Repeal and Appropriation from Savings to Aid Survivors of Homicide Victims and urges its passage...
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A ‘Perfect Storm’ of Injustice—Death-Row Prisoner Christopher Williams Exonerated in Philadelphia Murder Case

In a case prosecutors now describe as a “perfect storm” of injustice, Pennsylvania death-row prisoner Christopher Williams (pictured) and his co-defendant Theophalis Wilson have been exonerated of a 1989 triple murder in North Philadelphia.

On December 23, 2019, conceding that later-fired prosecutors had withheld “a plethora of significant material, exculpatory evidence,” the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against Williams. Less than a month later, on January 21, 2020, prosecutors told a Philadelphia trial court that Wilson had been unconstitutionally convicted and withdrew all charges against him. Wilson, who was 17 years old at the time of the murders, had been sentenced to life without parole.

Both men had been wrongfully convicted based on the perjured testimony of a Commonwealth informant and the deliberate suppression of exculpatory evidence by former Philadelphia prosecutors. The state’s key witness was James White, a confessed murderer who testified pursuant to a deal that spared him capital prosecution for six separate murders. White later recanted his testimony, saying that prosecutors had met with him several times before Williams’ and Wilson’s trials and provided him with fabricated information for his testimony.

The trial court reversed Williams’ conviction in December 2013, finding that his trial lawyer had failed to investigate the crime scene and challenge White’s “eyewitness” account of the crime. The trial court said expert forensic and medical testimony would have shown that White’s version of how the murder occurred was false and physically impossible. On appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court wrote that “[t]his testimony, if believed by the jury, coupled with the other evidence impeaching White’s credibility, would likely have changed the jury’s mind and resulted in Williams’ acquittal of the three murders.”

While Williams’ case was awaiting retrial, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) began investigating Wilson’s case, later expanding its review to include Williams’ trial. In 2019, the CIU provided defense lawyers more than 40,000 pages of documents in the case. In its motion to drop the charges against Williams, the CIU wrote that its file review “disclosed evidence that contradicted White's account; impeached other witnesses; inculpated other specific individuals; and indicated that the victims in this case were caught in an ongoing dispute between two extremely violent gangs, either of which may have been responsible for their deaths.”

In early December 2019, Patricia Cummings, chief of the CIU, personally interviewed White, who, she said, continued to disavow his trial testimony. Her motion to drop the case against Williams said that “the Commonwealth no longer credits White's trial testimony and account of the murders with which Williams is charged.” Because of that, she wrote, “it cannot and will not offer White's prior testimony and statements as evidence in any future proceedings against Williams.” With “no other competent evidence of Williams’ guilt,” there was no basis to continue to prosecute him, the motion said.

Corrections Personnel, Victims’ Families, Jurors Urge Clemency for Tennessee Death-Row “Lifesaver”

Saying that Nicholas Sutton “has gone from a life-taker to a life-saver,” lawyers for the Tennessee death-row prisoner filed an application for clemency with Governor Bill Lee on January 14, 2020. The clemency application, which requests that Lee commute Sutton’s sentence to life without parole, contained affidavits of support from seven Tennessee correctional officials, members of the victims’ families, and five of the jurors in the case.

Sutton currently faces a February 20, 2020 execution date for a murder committed in his early twenties while he was in prison on another murder charge.

The clemency application provides details from prison officials of how Sutton has matured and changed during his time on death row and how he has repeatedly intervened in dangerous situations to protect corrections personnel and other prisoners. “Five Tennesseans, including three prison staff members, owe their lives to him,” the petition said. The petition backs up that claim with statements from two corrections officers who say that Sutton saved their lives, and an earlier statement by a since-deceased Sheriff’s Deputy describing how Sutton protected him from an attack by another prisoner.

An affidavit from former corrections officer Tony Eden detailed an incident in which five armed prisoners attacked him and attempted to take him hostage during a 1985 prison riot. “I owe my life to Nick Sutton,” he said. “Nick and another inmate confronted them, physically removed me from the situation and escorted me to the safety of the trap gate in another building…. Nick risked his safety and well-being in order to save me from possible death.”

Officer Cheryl Donaldson provided an account of an incident in 1994 in which Sutton came to her aid after she had sustained a head injury in a fall. Serving as a prison unit manager at the time, she described lying on the prison floor, dazed, with her keys and radio sprawled out in the corridor. She said she feared that a prisoner might assault her or cause a security breach, but instead, “[Nick] sprang into action, helped me to my feet, retrieved my keys and radio, and alerted staff to come to my assistance.” That response, she said, “was typical of Nick, who always puts others before himself and is willing to help anyone in need.”

The clemency petition also offered a statement from the late Howard Ferrell, formerly a Hamblen County Sheriff’s Deputy, who described Sutton tackling a prisoner who was about to attack the deputy. “[Nick] probably could have saved my life,” Ferrell said.

Officer Eden strongly urged Governor Lee to grant Sutton’s request for clemency. “Nick Sutton is a prime example of a person's ability to change and that those convicted of murder can be rehabilitated,” Eden wrote. “If Nick Sutton was released tomorrow, I would welcome him into my home and invite him to be my neighbor.” Eden said Sutton “poses no danger to the prison staff or other inmates, and his presence in general population would be an asset to everyone at the prison.” Calling the possibility of Sutton’s execution “a grave injustice,” Eden said “I strongly support Nick Sutton receiving a life sentence.”

Five jurors who served at Sutton’s trial and voted to sentence him to death now say they support commuting his sentence to life in prison. His clemency plea also includes statements of support from family members of his victims.

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