PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Krasner’s office said that prior prosecutors violated the so-called Brady rule by illegally withholding evidence that could have helped Ogrod’s defense. Among other assertions, Krasner’s office says that the victim, Barbara Jean Horn, likely died of asphyxiation, but that police and prosecutors suppressed that fact while asserting that Ogrod had fatally beaten the girl with a weight bar during a fit of sexual rage. The accusations against the detectives and informants also suggest that Krasner’s office believes Ogrod’s case was one of several to be tainted by separate patterns of misconduct. The detectives, prosecutors said, “engaged in coercive tactics in obtaining false confessions and/or statements … in at least two homicide cases before they interrogated” Ogrod in 1992. Krasner’s office helped overturn another conviction connected to the now-retired detectives, Martin Devlin and Paul Worrell, in October, and has said it is investigating others tied to them. Prosecutors also said the informants, John Hall and Jay Wolchansky, were inmates together and “colluded” on a statement against Ogrod, claiming he’d confessed to the crime while jailed with them. The DA’s Office said it discovered hundreds of letters Hall — a cooperating witness in 12 homicides between 1983 and 1997 — had sent to his wife describing his so-called snitch scheme. And prosecutors said they interviewed Hall’s wife, who admitted compiling newspaper articles about Ogrod for her husband — and writing to Ogrod pretending to be a stripper to help Hall get additional details about the case."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Krasner’s office in the last two years has helped secure exonerations of 12 men convicted of murder, often saying that predecessors had failed to disclose evidence potentially helpful to defendants as required by law. Even so, the allegations of wrongdoing against Ogrod stand out, with prosecutors Patricia Cummings and Carrie Wood writing in an appellate document that after discounting the evidence they now find unreliable, “there exists no credible evidence to prove Ogrod was the person who murdered Barbara Jean.” Ogrod is due in court March 27, and a judge is expected to decide whether to vacate his conviction and clear the path for his release. His case has previously been chronicled in a book and on television shows, and Krasner on the campaign trail wrote about it while describing how he’d change the culture of the DA’s Office."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Philly man on death row 23 years for killing 4-year-old Northeast girl is 'likely innocent,' DA Larry Krasner says," by Violent Crime Reporter Chris Palmer, published by The Inquirer on March 7, 2020.
GIST: "The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office says a man on death row 23
years for allegedly molesting and murdering a 4-year-old girl is “likely
innocent,” and was convicted based on flawed, hidden, or corrupt
evidence — including a confession prosecutors believe was coerced by two
homicide detectives, and testimony from jailhouse informants whom
prosecutors no longer find credible. In court documents filed last week, DA Larry Krasner’s office asked a
judge to vacate the 1996 conviction of Walter Ogrod, 55, and free him
from prison, calling Ogrod’s case — prosecuted by Krasner’s predecessors
— a “gross miscarriage of justice.” Ogrod, according to Krasner’s office, “found himself adrift in a
perfect storm of unreliable scientific evidence, prosecutorial
misconduct, Brady violations, and false testimony.” Krasner’s
office said that prior prosecutors violated the so-called Brady rule by
illegally withholding evidence that could have helped Ogrod’s defense. Among other assertions, Krasner’s office says that the victim, Barbara
Jean Horn, likely died of asphyxiation, but that police and prosecutors
suppressed that fact while asserting that Ogrod had fatally beaten the
girl with a weight bar during a fit of sexual rage. The accusations against the detectives and informants also suggest that
Krasner’s office believes Ogrod’s case was one of several to be tainted
by separate patterns of misconduct. The detectives, prosecutors said, “engaged in coercive tactics in
obtaining false confessions and/or statements … in at least two homicide
cases before they interrogated” Ogrod in 1992. Krasner’s office helped overturn another conviction connected to the now-retired detectives, Martin Devlin and Paul Worrell, in October, and has said it is investigating others tied to them. Prosecutors also said the informants, John Hall and Jay Wolchansky,
were inmates together and “colluded” on a statement against Ogrod,
claiming he’d confessed to the crime while jailed with them. The DA’s Office said it discovered hundreds of letters Hall — a
cooperating witness in 12 homicides between 1983 and 1997 — had sent to
his wife describing his so-called snitch scheme. And prosecutors said
they interviewed Hall’s wife, who admitted compiling newspaper articles
about Ogrod for her husband — and writing to Ogrod pretending to be a
stripper to help Hall get additional details about the case. Krasner’s office in the last two years has helped secure exonerations
of 12 men convicted of murder, often saying that predecessors had failed
to disclose evidence potentially helpful to defendants as required by
law. Even so, the allegations of wrongdoing against Ogrod stand out, with
prosecutors Patricia Cummings and Carrie Wood writing in an appellate
document that after discounting the evidence they now find unreliable,
“there exists no credible evidence to prove Ogrod was the person who
murdered Barbara Jean.” Ogrod is due in court March 27, and a judge is expected to decide
whether to vacate his conviction and clear the path for his release. His
case has previously been chronicled in a book and on television shows, and Krasner on the campaign trail wrote about it while describing how he’d change the culture of the DA’s Office. Krasner’s spokesperson, Jane Roh, declined to comment Tuesday, and
Ogrod’s attorneys did not respond to requests for additional comment. Barbara Jean’s naked remains were found July 12, 1988, inside a
cardboard television box on the 1400 block of St. Vincent Street, a
short walk from her family’s home in the Castor section of Northeast
Philadelphia. At the time, court documents say, Ogrod lived across the street from
the girl’s house. He was interviewed during a neighborhood canvas after
the murder but not considered a suspect, and the case went cold. In early 1992, the documents say, the case was reassigned to Devlin and
Worrell, and they began reviewing the file and seeking additional
interviews. In addition, the documents say, one of their colleagues had
an unusual connection to the case: In 1986, he’d investigated a stabbing
in the basement of Ogrod’s home. Ogrod’s brother survived the attack,
but 16-year-old Maureen Dunne — the daughter of a police detective — was
killed. Prosecutors now assert that photographs taken during that investigation
— which led to an arrest — became key to prosecuting Ogrod over the
death of Barbara Jean. In particular, they say a weight bar in one of
the photos was later referenced as the weapon that Ogrod used to kill
the girl, and that Ogrod allegedly admitted using it during a confession
he gave to Devlin and Worrell. Prosecutors now say they don’t believe Ogrod’s statement to the
detectives, that he’d been sleep-deprived and manipulated. He recanted
almost immediately; Krasner’s office said case files contained “a
plethora of information regarding how Devlin and Worrell had a history
of using coercive techniques to obtain confessions and incriminating
suspects.” In recent years, Devlin has been repeatedly accused of forcing men to
confess to crimes they didn’t commit. Since 2016, three convictions
featuring confessions he helped secure have been overturned, and two men
— Anthony Wright and Shaurn Thomas — have settled lawsuits claiming misconduct for millions of dollars each. Neither Devlin nor Worrell has commented publicly on the allegations of misconduct. Lynne Abraham, who was district attorney in the 1990s, said in an
interview Tuesday that she was not aware at the time of the allegations
against Devlin or Worrell, and did not recall many of the details about
Ogrod’s prosecution. But she said: “I never prosecuted a case where I
knew there were coercive tactics.” In Ogrod’s case, Krasner’s office said two doctors recently reviewed
Barbara Jean’s autopsy reports and concluded her injuries were not
consistent with a beating death. One of the trial prosecutors, according
to Krasner’s office, also took notes indicating that a medical expert
had “concluded that Barbara Jean died from asphyxia,” but the notes were
not disclosed to Ogrod’s lawyers. Ogrod was first tried in 1993, but a mistrial was declared after 11
jurors voted to acquit and one panelist did not agree. The jury
foreperson at the time told the Daily News that most jurors did not find
Ogrod’s supposed confession credible. Another juror told The Inquirer
at the time: “There were gaping holes in the prosecution’s case. … I
didn’t put much stock in the recanted confession. I wanted to see
evidence.” At the next trial, three years later, prosecutors returned with new
evidence: Ogrod’s supposed jailhouse confession to Wolchansky. A jury
convicted him on Oct. 8, 1996. But the DA’s Office now says prosecutors never disclosed evidence of
Wolchansky’s “severe" mental health problems. And they call the details
of his statement, including the claim that Ogrod beat Barbara Jean with a
weight bar, “demonstrably false.”
The entire story can be read at:
Read Injustice Watch account by reporter John Seasly at the link below for more background on Walter Ogrod and on this oppressive case:
--------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Ogrod’s case was one of 24 featured in Injustice Watch’s “Unrequited Innocence” series last year, which examined people sentenced to death who have not been fully exonerated despite compelling evidence of innocence. Since then, Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed has been granted a new hearing and Oklahoma inmate Karl Fontenot has been released from prison."
STORY: "The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office believes Walter Ogrod, who was sentenced to death 23 years ago for the attempted sexual assault and murder of a 4-year-old girl, is “likely innocent,” according to court documents filed Saturday. The office, led by former defense attorney and criminal justice reform advocate Larry Krasner, has asked that the court vacate Ogrod’s conviction and sentence, calling it a “gross miscarriage of justice.” “Ogrod was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly three decades on death row – and all agree his incarceration constitutes cruel and unusual punishment,” wrote Patricia Cummings, the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit supervisor. Ogrod’s case was one of 24 featured in Injustice Watch’s “Unrequited Innocence” series last year, which examined people sentenced to death who have not been fully exonerated despite compelling evidence of innocence. Since then, Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed has been granted a new hearing and Oklahoma inmate Karl Fontenot has been released from prison. Four years after the naked and battered body of Barbara Jean Horn was found in a trash bag in Philadelphia, the police had made no arrests despite having a series of suspects. Ogrod was not considered a suspect in the 1988 murder of 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn until three years after her body was found. He had no criminal record and didn’t match the physical description of the man seen carrying the box Horn was found in. There were no signs of sexual assault on her body. Ogrod was described by acquaintances as unable to make decisions for himself and easily manipulated due to a mental disability. He confessed to the murder and attempted assault after an unrecorded interrogation by detectives Martin Devlin and Paul Worrell, who obtained false confessions that led to exonerations in at least two other cases. His retrial (the first ended in a mistrial) included a notorious jailhouse informant known as “the Monsignor” due to his apparent knack for hearing confessions. Ogrod was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996. Cummings wrote Saturday that Devlin and Worrell “utilized inherently coercive tactics and inaccurate information to obtain a false and unreliable confession from Ogrod; and jailhouse informants colluded to provide false and unreliable testimony against Ogrod in an effort to procure favorable treatment in their own criminal prosecutions.” No credible evidence remains that can prove Ogrod killed Horn, which means Horn’s real murderer remains unknown and may have committed other crimes, Cummings wrote. Cummings and Ogrod’s attorney Samuel Angell did not respond to requests for comment. Ogrod is scheduled to appear in court on March 27, when Judge Shelley Robins New is expected to decide whether to vacate his conviction." https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/2020/philadelphia-da-death-row-inmate-walter-ogrod-likely-innocent/?utm_source=Injustice+Watch+Newsletter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b522eab024-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_05_07_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a5f79d769-b522eab024-356919369
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
------------------------------------------------------------------
