PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A former top official within the District Attorney’s Office has been suspended from practicing in Federal court for three years after she was accused of lying to a judge to overturn a death penalty sentence.
The Federal court unsealed the order to suspend Nancy Winkelman, a former supervisor of the District Attorney’s Law Division, earlier this week.
A panel of three judges agreed the longtime attorney should be suspended because they said she “misrepresented critical facts” to vacate a defendant’s sentence.
The decision comes several months after her subordinate Paul George was disbarred from Federal court for the same reason, and the same case: Robert Wharton, who was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a Mount Airy couple in the 1980s, and leaving their baby daughter to freeze to death. The baby was rescued and survived.
After exhausting all other appeals at the state level, Wharton turned to the Federal court to vacate his sentence, and the District Attorney’s Office sided with him.
The judges said George didn’t investigate or properly vet the case before siding with the defendant and didn’t notify the family. They said Winkelman didn’t review any of what was presented to the judge, but signed off on it anyway.
In a report, the judges wrote, “We further find that she was willfully blind to, and complicit in, George’s misrepresentations…”
Earlier this week, a Pennsylvania court directed the state’s Attorney General to review any cases they want to overturn, accusing the DAO of “misrepresenting facts.”
According to public records, both George and Winkelman were still on payroll in the first quarter and made nearly $180,000 each, although George reportedly retired.
"Nancy Winkelman is an exceptional attorney who left a lucrative big law firm partnership and a pile of money behind to serve the public in the Philly DA's Office. In all my interactions with Nancy, she has shown exceptional competence and integrity and contributed mightily to needed reform. On the eve of Juneteenth, we should all remember that reform is necessary in every era. And that those who bring needed reform sometimes are made to pay a price,” District Attorney Larry Krasner wrote in a statement.
The case dates to the 1980s
The case dates to the 1980s
