Philadelphia man Willie Stokes was freed from prison this week after 37 years behind bars, and it’s thanks to a witnesses testimony related to the 1984 conviction.
As NBC Philadelphia reported, the trial witness Franklin Lee alleged he was offered sex and drugs by two detectives in exchange for lying about the 1980 murder case. Lee was in police custody for unrelated charges at the time and was told he would get a lighter sentence if he helped the detectives close the case.
Lee said his girlfriend was told to come to police headquarters during a 1983 incident, and he was permitted to smoke marijuana and consume various opioid pills. After that, his girlfriend was told not to go back to the police station, and the detectives hired a sex worker on a separate occasion. The two detectives have since died.
At the preliminary hearing in 1984, Lee said Willie Stokes confessed to murdering a man named Leslie Campbell. He recanted his story just months later, but Stokes was still convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. After that conviction, Lee was charged with perjury over his initial testimony and admitted he lied about Stokes. He pleaded guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to seven years. He was also given 35 years on rape and murder charges, but was released from prison two years ago.
“Once I talked to my mother, she told me, ‘I didn’t raise you like that, to lie on a man because you got yourself in a jam,’” Lee testified in court. “She said, ‘I couldn’t care if they give you 1,000 years. Go in there and tell the truth.’ And that’s what I did.”
Lee also apologized to Stokes in court.
Stokes had his murder conviction vacated by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania last week, citing the state’s failure to uphold his constitutional rights. He did not learn about Lee’s perjury charge and his plea deal until 2015.
“Today is a tremendous day. We’re all very thankful,” said Stokes' lawyer Michael Diamondstein. “However, it’s also a sad day, because it reminds us of how lawless, unfair and unjust Philadelphia law enforcement was for so long.”
