PHILADELPHIA, March 2, (AP): Daniel Gwynn found himself on death row at 25 after Philadelphia prosecutors said in court that two witnesses had picked him out of a photo array in a fatal arson case.
The photo spread had by then gone missing, and his trial lawyer in 1995 may not have asked for other proof of the supposed match. But appellate lawyers who spent decades pursuing his innocence claims finally unearthed the police photo - with a federal judge's help - in 2016 and Gwynn was noticeably absent.
"He was nowhere to be found," said lawyer Karl Schwartz, who joined Gwynn as he left prison this week after 30 years, most of it spent on death row in western Pennsylvania. "It shocks the conscience.”
Gwynn, now 54, joins more than 40 Philadelphians exonerated of serious crimes since 2016, and more than 3,500 exonerated across the US since 1989.
"More times than you would like to see, it's powerfully exculpatory evidence that has been either hidden or misrepresented at a homicide trial that results in a guy ending up with a life sentence, or worse,” Schwartz said.
The photo array was just one of several pieces of questionable evidence used to convict Gwynn in the capital case. Investigators also relied on a confession taken as he suffered from drug withdrawal and overlooked evidence that another person - now serving a life term on other charges - had threatened to torch the building three days earlier over an unrelated slaying. Evidence points to that suspect, prosecutors now say.
Marsha Smith died in the 1994 fire in West Philadelphia, while several other people staying there were injured jumping out of windows. Few of the relevant details Gwynn gave in his police statement matched the crime scene.
The case "exemplifies an era of inexact and, at times corrupt, policing and prosecution that has broken trust with our communities to this day,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has championed dozens of innocence claims since taking office in 2018. Meanwhile, he said, "the guilty go free and are emboldened to do more harm.”