International Courant
Three Philadelphia-area males, who every spent a long time in jail, had their convictions vacated in courtroom final Thursday attributable to current proof that their DNA was absent from the scene of the homicide of a lady greater than 25 years previous previous.
Sam Grasty, Derrick Chappell and Morton Johnson have persistently claimed their innocence within the 1997 homicide of Henrietta Nickens, a 70-year-old girl who was crushed to loss of life and sexually assaulted in her house in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, based on Paul Casteleiro. Grasty’s lawyer and authorized director of the nonprofit Centurion, which labored on his behalf. Based on attorneys, the boys had been sentenced to life in jail and had already been imprisoned for about 25 years.
“The state has not responded to any proof that contradicts our DNA proof and our crime scene reconstruction professional,” Casteleiro advised ABC Information. “To this present day, that has not been the course they’ve adopted. They’ve resisted this (proof of their innocence) in each approach attainable.”
Sam Grasty (left), Derrick Chappell (middle) and Morton Johnson (proper) had their convictions revoked by a Pennsylvania choose after serving a long time in jail for homicide.
The households
Based on courtroom paperwork, the defendants had been convicted of homicide, housebreaking and participation in a prison conspiracy, amongst different prices.
Choose Mary Alice Brennan set a bail listening to for Could 23 after vacating the boys’s convictions, courtroom information present. Delaware County District Lawyer Jack Stollsteimer may ask for a brand new trial, enchantment the choose’s resolution to vacate the case, or dismiss the case, attorneys mentioned.
The district lawyer’s workplace didn’t instantly return ABC Information’ request for remark.
“This case ought to by no means have gone to trial,” Vanessa Potkin, Johnson’s lawyer and director of particular litigation on the Innocence Mission, advised ABC Information in an announcement. “As quickly because the preliminary testing was carried out, regulation enforcement ought to have acknowledged that that they had focused the fallacious people. As a result of they refused to take action, they despatched three harmless youngsters to jail the place they had been locked up for many years whereas the one who dedicated this crime walked free.”
Chappell was 15 years previous when he was arrested. Based on their attorneys, Johnson was 18 and Grasty was 21. The entire males are actually of their 40s.
Nickens, the 70-year-old sufferer who was attacked and murdered in her house on October 10, 1997, was discovered by her daughter the following day, based on Casteleiro.
Chester, Pennsylvania, police questioned one other neighborhood teen in regards to the killing, Potkin advised ABC Information: 15-year-old Richard McElwee, who Potkin mentioned had a historical past of drug abuse. Chester police, who had detained McElwee on drug prices, interrogated him for hours till he lastly confessed to them, Potkin mentioned.
Morton Johnson (left) and his lawyer Vanessa Potkin (proper) say his case ought to by no means have gone to trial as a result of neither his DNA nor the DNAs of his co-defendants had been discovered on the crime scene of Henrietta Nickens’ 1997 loss of life.
Courtesy of The Innocence Mission
McElwee testified that he was the lookout whereas the three co-defendants entered the house to rob Nickens, Casteleiro mentioned. Prosecutors initially mentioned the defendants sexually assaulted Nickens, however their DNA didn’t match the semen discovered on the crime scene, and based on Casteleiro, the 4 defendants’ DNA was not discovered anyplace on the scene.
Prosecutors claimed a inexperienced jacket discovered on the crime scene belonged to Grasty with out testing it for DNA, Casteleiro mentioned. Years later, the jacket was examined for DNA and it didn’t match the DNA of any of the suspects, but it surely did match the semen within the sufferer’s physique, Casteleiro mentioned.
McElwee acquired a sentence of six to 12 years in jail with the plea deal, whereas Grasty, Chappell and Johnson acquired life sentences.
Neither Nickens’ household, Chester police nor McElwee instantly responded to ABC Information’ request for an announcement.
With out a DNA match, prosecutors developed theories about the place the semen on the crime scene got here from, Casteleiro mentioned.
“It is simply opposite to what the justice system is about,” Casteleiro mentioned. “Prosecutors are purported to do justice and never simply acquire convictions. … They wish to convict the appropriate individuals.”
Choose throws out the convictions of three Philadelphia-area males who had been in jail for many years
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