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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder and Rape |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment without possibility of parole |
Years Imprisoned: |
24.83 |
Year Crime: |
1991 |
Year Convicted: |
1992 |
Year Cleared: |
2016 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Pennsylvania |
County or Region of Crime: |
Philadelphia |
City of Crime: |
Philadelphia |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Anthony Wright was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of his 77-year-old neighbor Louise Talley in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in October 1991. Wright's prosecution was based on his confession that he robbed Talley for money to buy drugs and she begged for her life before he killed her. The 20-year-old Talley recanted his confession as false and coerced. After his conviction by a jury Wright was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2014 post-conviction DNA testing of sperm recovered from crime scene evidence excluded Wright. The testing implicated a former Philadelphia-area crack addict who died in a South Carolina prison. The prosecution elected to retry Wright on the basis that the testing didn't exclude him from possibly being an accomplice to the crime. On August 23, 2016 Wright was acquitted by a jury after a retrial, and he was released after 24 years and 10 months in custody. On September 20, 2016 Wright filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and eleven police officers, including the officer who obtained Wright's false confession that Wright claims he coerced Wright into signing it without reading it." |
Conviction Caused By: |
False confession coerced by police interrogation. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On August 23, 2016 Wright was acquitted by a jury after a retrial." |
Defendant Aided By: |
Lawyer Samuel Silver and Innocence Project of New York |
Compensation Awarded: |
"$9.85 million (City of Philadelphia, 2018)" |
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
Yes |
Age When Imprisoned: |
20 |
Age When Released: |
44 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Black |
Information Source 1: |
"Jury finds man not guilty in 1991 rape-murder retrial, By Crimesider Staff AP, CBSNews.com, August 23, 2016" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-wright-jury-finds-man-not-guilty-in-1991-rape-murder-retrial/ |
Information Source 2: |
"Man exonerated in 1991 rape, murder sues cops, Philadelphia, By Associated Press, Herald Courier, September 22, 2016" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/man-exonerated-in-rape-murder-sues-cops-philadelphia/article_f3dc163c-e3b2-593c-b940-3e51e6a71485.html |
Information Source 3: |
"Philly to pay $9.8M to man exonerated who spent 28 years in prison after wrongful conviction for murder, By Jeremy Roebuck, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 30, 2020" |
Information Location 3: |
https://www.inquirer.com/news/chester-hollman-settlement-philly-exoneration-lawsuit-netflix-undisclosed-20201230.html |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org