PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A former Philadelphia assistant district attorney testified Friday that she was told to side with a defendant as they appealed a murder conviction in Federal court at the direction of her boss, a top official within the office.
Judge Paul Diamond called the evidentiary hearing because the District Attorney’s Office agreed to overturn a 2009 murder conviction and then recanted; the judge is trying to figure out what happened and why.
The DA assigned to handle that appeal was Jaclyn Mason, who was with the office’s Federal Litigation Unit until she resigned earlier this year because she “refused to participate in a cover-up for the four supervisors.”
She testified there were a series of meetings between herself, her boss Matt Stiegler, Federal defenders and the Innocence Project, to figure out which of the defendant’s claims they should move forward with — in her words, “colluding” to get the defendant relief.
Mason testified that Stiegler used her as a pawn, and told her, “if it’s good enough for the Innocence Project, it’s good enough for me.”
She said Stiegler directed her to write the legal document conceding that the defendant’s appeal should be granted, but was never directed to investigate, read trial testimony or speak with the trial prosecutor.
She told the judge that when she realized something in the brief wasn’t true, she went to her supervisors and others in the unit to raise concerns, before eventually resigning. That’s when the office pulled their concession.
The judge questioned Stiegler about how he figures out what to do with appeals, to which he said they don’t independently investigate, but review the file to make decisions, and that he relied on her to do so.
Mason later told the judge that nothing Stiegler said on the stand was true.
Four other witnesses are expected to be called to testify on another date that hasn’t been scheduled.
Last month, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that the attorney general must oversee all cases in which the DA’s office wants to overturn a conviction.
The Federal court also disbarred one of Krasner’s top officials and suspended another for similar questionable conduct.
