And then there were 122

Another person has been freed from death row due to emerging evidence of innocence. This is not to be confused with being freed due to what some people would call "legal technicalities." (Although frankly I find that phrase to be so onerous....just which provision of the Bill of Rights is a legal technicality? Or which amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a legal technicality?)

But I digress.

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has added Harold Wilson to its list of wrongly convicted people who were sent to death row. Wilson becomes the 122nd man on the list, which dates back to the 1970s.

Here's the DPIC press release:

Pennsylvania Man Becomes the 122nd Inmate Freed From Death Row

More than 16 years after a Pennsylvania jury returned three death sentences against Harold Wilson, new DNA evidence has helped lead to
his acquittal. Yesterday, Wilson became the nation’s 122nd person freed from death row according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

During his 1989 capital trial, Wilson was prosecuted by former Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon, a man best known for his role in a training video that advised new Philadelphia prosecutors on how to use race in selecting death penalty juries.

In 1999, Wilson’s death sentence was overturned when a court determined that his defense counsel had failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence during his original trial. A later appeal led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to call for a new hearing because of
evidence that McMahon used racially discriminatory practices in jury
selection.

In 2003, a trial court found that McMahon had improperly exercised his peremptory strikes to eliminate potential black jurors and granted Wilson a new trial, a decision that the District Attorney’s office did not appeal. The court stated that in the new trial the death penalty could not be sought.

The jury in this most recent trial acquitted Wilson of all charges on
November 15, 2005, after new DNA evidence revealed blood from the crime scene that did not come from Wilson or any of the victims, a finding suggesting the involvement of another assailant.

Wilson is the second person to be freed from death row this year, and the sixth Pennsylvania death row inmate to be freed since 1982.