A Philadelphia man who served 37 years in prison was cleared Thursday in a 1980 murder case tainted by perjured testimony and promptly sued the city over his conviction.
A Philadelphia man who served 37 years in prison in a case tainted by perjured testimony was cleared of the murder on Thursday and then sued the city over his 1984 conviction., after a federal judge found prosecutors never disclosed that they had charged his chief accuser with perjury after the trial. The witness has said he was offered sex and drugs at police headquarters to frame Stokes in an unsolved 1980 dice-game slaying.
The trial witness who identified him as the killer at a preliminary hearing recanted at the murder trial, in what he later called a fit of conscience. Stokes was nonetheless convicted. Prosecutors then charged the witness, Franklin Lee, with perjury over his pretrial testimony, and Lee went to prison for it. Stokes never knew that until 2015.
"She got a beautiful three-story house, so I’m not in the way," Stokes said Thursday, the joy in his voice evident. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has championed about two dozen exoneration cases. A supervisor in his office, Matthew Stiegler, said Thursday the office agreed with the federal judge who found that Stokes' constitutional rights were egregiously violated.
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