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The Story of Harold Wilson: Convicted of Triple Murder, Sentenced
to Die, Exonerated After 17 Years in Prison
The Story of Harold Wilson: Convicted of Triple Murder,
Sentenced to Die, Exonerated After 17 Years in Prison
In a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive, we spend the hour
with Harold C. Wilson. Convicted of three murders in 1989,
Wilson spent more than 17 years in prison, most of that time
on death row. In 1999, Wilson's death sentence was overturned
due to ineffective counsel. However, his murder convictions
were not - and he remained on death row. Finally, on October
31st, 2005, Wilson's final trial began. DNA evidence was presented
for the first time. On November 15th, he was acquitted of
all charges and set free.
In an extended conversation, Wilson talks about his imprisonment,
his trial, his soldier son, who is serving in Iraq, and his
daughter, who is a prison guard in Arizona. [includes rush
transcript - partial]
Today, the memorial service for executed death row prisoner
Stanley Tookie Williams will be held in Los Angeles. Last
week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied William's
bid for clemency. He was executed by lethal injection. Williams
spent 24 years on death row after being convicted of four
murders. Though he was co-founder of the Crips, one of the
country's most notorious street gangs, once in prison he became
a vocal advocate against gang violence, a children's author
and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Williams and his supporters
maintained his innocence up until his death.
Today, a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive. We spend the
hour with Harold C. Wilson. Convicted of three murders, he
spent more than 17 years in prison, most of the time on death
row. Last month, he was exonerated after DNA evidence proved
his innocence. He joined us yesterday in our firehouse studio
for an extended conversation.
In 1989, a Pennsylvania jury sentenced him to death. Three
times: once for each murder. After a decade on death row,
in 1999, Wilson's death sentence was overturned due to ineffective
counsel.
That lawyer Willis Berry has since become a judge. Despite
having his death sentence overturned, Wilson's murder convictions
were not - and he remained on death row.
Wilson was originally prosecuted by former Philadelphia Assistant
District Attorney Jack McMahon. In 1997, the courts began
examining Philadelphia's jury selection process after McMahon's
role in a training tape was revealed. That year, District
Attorney Lynne Abraham, who was in a tight re-election campaign
with McMahon, released a training video showing McMahon instructing
colleagues to keep poor blacks off juries saying they were
less likely to convict.
In 2003 a trial court granted Wilson a new trial after it
found that McMahon had used racial bias to eliminate black
jurors. Harold Wilson's second trial was a mistrial. Then,
on October 31st 2005, Wilson's final trial began. DNA evidence
was presented for the first time. On November 15th, Wilson
was acquitted of all charges and set free.
Harold Wilson can be contacted at:
Harold C. Wilson
PO Box 19709 Philadelphia PA 19143
haroldcwilson@gmail.com
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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