“Time TV”
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Derrick Chappell, 41; Morton Johnson, 44; and Samuel Grasty, 47, have been every convicted in separate trials in 2000 and 2001 of second-degree homicide and different prices and sentenced to life in jail for the 1997 killing of Henrietta Nickens, 70, in Chester, Pennsylvania, simply exterior of Philadelphia.
They’ve maintained their innocence within the greater than twenty years since, and requested a choose final yr to throw out their convictions and order new trials, citing new DNA proof they are saying factors to an unknown man because the killer. In late March – over the objections of prosecutors who fought to have the convictions upheld – Delaware County Choose Mary Alice Brennan vacated the trio’s convictions and granted their request for a brand new trial.
Nonetheless, Chappell, Johnson and Grasty remained behind bars: Prosecutors had as much as 30 days to resolve whether or not to attraction the ruling, and a bail listening to was scheduled to happen on Could 23.
On Tuesday, Delaware County District Legal professional Jack Stollsteimer stated he had, the truth is, determined to attraction. In a press release to “Time TV”, Stollsteimer stated doing so can be “within the curiosity of justice.”
“Whereas I’ve nice respect for Choose Brennan,” Stollsteimer stated, “I don’t consider the DNA proof lately submitted to the courtroom, which matches the DNA already entered into proof at every of the three defendants’ particular person trials, constitutes new proof underneath Pennsylvania regulation, and definitely doesn’t exonerate these defendants.”
A discover of attraction was filed with the courtroom on Friday, based on the district legal professional’s workplace.
Attorneys for not less than two of the boys stated the district legal professional’s announcement was disappointing.
“There may very well be nothing additional than justice than the choice to attraction the choose’s order,” stated Vanessa Potkin of the Innocence Challenge, who represents Johnson. “The DA’s resolution is perpetrating a two decade lengthy injustice and demonstrates profound confusion about each the science of DNA and the regulation.”
That sentiment was echoed by Nilam Sanghvi of the Pennsylvania Innocence Challenge, which represents Chappell, saying the attraction would “delay the unjust incarceration of our shoppers.”
“The brand new DNA proof conclusively reveals that none of them was concerned on this horrific crime and that, as an alternative, an unknown male was the perpetrator,” Sanghvi stated. “We plan to hunt bail pending attraction and stay up for the bail listening to the Court docket has scheduled for Could twenty third.”
Nickens died in her Chester residence on October 10, 1997. She had been overwhelmed, and investigators discovered semen in her rectum that testing on the time indicated was from a male who stays unknown to this present day, based on courtroom filings.
The trio’s petition for a brand new trial adopted new DNA testing in 2021 that additional linked proof from the crime scene to the unknown male – and excluded the three defendants, based on Chappell’s attorneys.
The prosecution, nonetheless, argued partially that the preliminary trials didn’t join the semen to the defendants, so the outcomes of the brand new DNA testing didn’t change the proof.
“Time TV”’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
