PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A wrongfully convicted Philadelphia man is free after serving nearly 40 years in prison. City prosecutors officially withdrew the case, and now, he’s suing the city.
Willie Stokes was convicted of murder in 1984, largely based on the testimony from a witness who said detectives offered him a sweetheart deal — sex and drugs — in exchange for testifying against Stokes. That witness was later convicted of perjury, which Stokes did not learn until 2015.
A federal judge found his rights were violated, and 60-year-old Stokes was released a month ago. His lawyer, Mike Diamondstein, called the case an injustice.
Related
“We all need to be cognizant as a society that injustice happens when people don’t pay attention,” he said. “This was a case where nobody paid attention. How horrible it is that this man lost 38 years of his life because law enforcement did things that they should have never.”
More than 100 people have been exonerated in recent years in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported. Stokes’ civil attorneys, Joshua Van Naarden and Julia Ronnebaum of VSCP Law, immediately filed a lawsuit. They claim he served the longest wrongful incarceration sentence in the state.
“We are pursuing a 1983 civil rights action against the City of Philadelphia and several detectives and prosecutors associated with his wrongful conviction that led him to be incarcerated as an innocent man for almost four decades,” said Van Naarden.
Now that he’s free, Stokes said he is focused on moving forward. First step: Set up an email account. Next, he and his loved ones, including his 80-year-old mother, are planning their days together.
“I’m grateful that she still was around for me to make it out,” said Stokes. “I don’t want to shoot to blame, but I’m just thankful that I had the team I had to get the results I got.”