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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "At Hill's trial, a motorist said he had followed a car he suspected might be carrying the gunman. The vehicle parked in front of Hill's home on Pershing Street. Another witness said she saw the gunman without his mask and recognized him as a neighborhood resident, but said she did not know his name. The woman on two occasions incorrectly described the man as the relative of an acquaintance. She then identified Hill from a photo provided by a detective, according to the previous ruling CRU attorneys on Friday asked Superior Court Judge Edward McBride Jr. to overturn the conviction."
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STORY: "Attorney General's unit wins release of man serving 60-year prison term," by Reporter Jim Walsh, published by The Cherry Hill Courrier Post on July 10, 2021.
GIST: "A state judge has vacated the conviction of a Camden man who was serving a 60-year prison term for the murders of two women here.
The ruling to release Taron Hill, 34, followed an "extensive re-investigation" by the Conviction Review Unit of the state Attorney General’s Office.
It was the first such accomplishment for the unit, which was created two years ago to identify “convictions that can no longer be sustained,” said Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
Hill has been imprisoned since March 2007 for the murders of Robin Battie, 45, and Tinesha Lewis, 23, in September 2004.
But the CRU found “clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Hill should not have been convicted of the crime,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
It cited no specific evidence, but noted multiple shortcomings with Hill’s prosecution.
For instance, an eyewitness identified Hill as the gunman through the use of a single photograph, the statement said.
“Although this evidence was admitted at trial, it is not an investigative best practice under current identification procedures,” it noted. And two jailhouse informants corroborated the eyewitness identification, but later recanted their testimony.
“At the time, use of jailhouse informant testimony was subject to fewer safeguards,” said the statement, which noted higher standards took effect in October 2020.
The murder weapon was not recovered and no forensic evidence, such as fingerprints or DNA, tied Hill to the crime.
The statement also noted Hill and his family members “did not come forward with what they knew about the offense until after his trial and conviction.
It said evidence obtained by the CRU "was not available to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office at the time of Hill’s trial or post-conviction hearings."
A cold-case unit is investigating the deaths of Battie and Lewis, whose survivors were notified before Friday’s court decision.
“I know today is an extremely difficult day for their families, and we want to assure those families that we are working diligently to bring closure to this terrible episode,” said Grewal.
The women were fatally shot shortly after midnight by a masked gunman who fired nine shots into a crowd at Thurman and Louis street, according to an earlier ruling in the case.
Neither victim was the intended target.
At Hill's trial, a motorist said he had followed a car he suspected might be carrying the gunman. The vehicle parked in front of Hill's home on Pershing Street.
Another witness said she saw the gunman without his mask and recognized him as a neighborhood resident, but said she did not know his name.
The woman on two occasions incorrectly described the man as the relative of an acquaintance. She then identified Hill from a photo provided by a detective, according to the previous ruling.
CRU attorneys on Friday asked Superior Court Judge Edward McBride Jr. to overturn the conviction.
Grewal called McBride's decision to do so “an important milestone” for the CRU, which began in April 2019.
The unit has received about 480 applications, most of them “at various stages of screening, review or investigation,” the statement said.
Hill, who submitted his innocence claim in August 2019, appeared at Friday’s hearing via video conference from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
Grewal said a “post-release plan” for Hill has been developed with input from Centurion, a non-profit “innocence organization” based in Princeton and a collaborating partner with the CRU.
Friday's ruling was the seond in two years to upend a double-homicide case in Camden.
A state appeals court in December 2020 overturned murder convictions for Sean Washington and Kevin Baker, two city men who had been serving life terms for the execution-style shootings of a man and a woman at a Centerville housing project in January 1995.
That ruling said additional evidence, if presented at the men's trial "probably would have changed the jury's verdict."
The Camden County Prosecutor's Office in February 2020 said it would not pursue a retrial.
Baker and Washington had been accused of the predawn murders of Rodney "Rock" Turner, 35, and Margaret "Murph" Wilson, 40, in a courtyard at the Roosevelt Manor apartment complex."
The entire story can be read at:
