He spent 37 years in prison unjustly because a witness lied in exchange for drugs and sex

The conviction of Willie Stokes, an Afro-descendant man wrongly sentenced to life in prison for a murder, took an unexpected turn. The witness who accused him of having killed a man confessed that he was bribed by two detectives to lie in his statement; all in order to find a culprit.

After 37 years in prison, Stokes He was released Tuesday by a US magistrate, who called the initial sentence an “egregious violation of constitutional rights,” the New York Post said.

Franklin Lee, the witness in the case, accused during a hearing in May 1984 Willie Stokes, now 61, having murdered Leslie Campbell in 1980 during a game of dice. This false testimony was planned by two detectives, now dead, to close this murder case.

In exchange for this lie, the officers offered Lee special treatment that included drugs and sex during his time in jail. The subject was charged with rape and murder charges unrelated to the case; so they also promised him help to reduce his sentence.

“I got weak and accepted the offer”Lee told a federal judge in November last year.

It was not until August 1984 that Lee retracted his statement; However, Stokes had already been sentenced months before, for which he was taken to jail without learning that he was wrongly blamed.

“Once I spoke to my mother, she told me: ‘I didn’t raise you like that, to lie about a man because you got into trouble'”, declared Lee in your testimony. “She said, ‘I don’t care if they give you 1,000 years. Come in and tell the truth. And that is what I did “, lament.

The prosecutors of Philadelphia Lee was charged with perjury. He was found guilty after admitting that the confession had been fabricated and sentenced to a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

In 2015, decades after he was sentenced, Stokes learned of the false testimony and asked his lawyer to appeal the murder conviction.

“The homicide prosecutors who used Franklin Lee’s testimony to convict Willie Stokes then prosecuted him for lying about my defendant’s case and never told him anything.” argument Michael Diamondstein, Stokes’s attorney at the November hearing in federal court.

Stokes got out of a state prison in Philadelphia last Tuesday and was received by his mother and family.

“Today is a tremendous day. We are all very grateful “said his attorney, Diamondstein. “However, it is also a sad day, because it reminds us of how illegal, unfair and unfair law enforcement was in Philadelphia for so long.”

In 2019 Lee was released from prison after serving 35 years on charges of rape, murder and perjury.