This was a case that involved a robbery conviction related to one victim and a separate second-degree murder conviction that related to a different victim, both resulting in a sentence of thirty years to life imprisonment. Our client was a seventeen-year old female who was wrongfully convicted based on an illegally coerced confession elicited from her by a now-exposed corrupt detective; false testimony from another juvenile, and fatally flawed identification testimony from two eyewitnesses. During the course of this PCRA litigation, which spanned over four years, we engaged the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Our firm uncovered and presented cell-phone records that established an alibi for our client, presented alibi testimony at one of several PCRA hearings; presented favorable evidence that the prosecution failed to disclose at the time of trial; and comprehensively and definitively refuted each piece of “evidence” that was used to convict our client. After nearly thirteen years of incarceration, our client’s convictions were vacated and she is now home with her family.
Extensive details about this case are detailed in the chronicles of the National Registry of Exonerations, found at https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=6545.
Mr. Mosser’s Post Hearing Brief can be reviewed here: Download PDF.
Media coverage of this case can be found here: www.audacy.com/kywnewsradio/news/local/india-spellman-free-2013-murder-conviction-dismissed