Today, Kareem Johnson of Pennsylvania became the 170th person exonerated from the nation’s death rows. He is the third death row exoneration of 2020, and the sixth from Pennsylvania.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), Johnson’s case was marked by now familiar problems: official misconduct and junk science.
Read more from DPIC here:
Kareem Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 based upon evidence and argument falsely informing the jury that DNA evidence linked him to the murder. The prosecution, police, and a prosecution forensic analyst told the jury that Johnson shot the victim, Walter Smith, at such close range that Smith’s blood spattered onto a red baseball cap Johnson was wearing that was recovered at the murder scene. Philadelphia homicide prosecutor Michael Barry falsely linked Johnson to the murder through the hat, telling jurors in his opening statement that it “was left at th[e] scene in the middle of the street [and] has Kareem Johnson’s sweat on it and has Walter Smith’s blood on it.”
Officer William Trenwith then testified that he had found the hat laying 8–10 feet from Smith’s body. He further testified that, in his experience, he had never seen blood travel that far from a victim’s body, after which Barry told jurors: “We know that he [Kareem Johnson] got in real close, within 2 ½ feet, close enough so that Walter Smith’s blood could splash up onto the bill of the cap he was wearing.” Barry argued: “Do you know who says the killer wore the hat? Walter Smith says the killer wore the hat. He says it with his blood.”
In fact, there was no blood on the red hat, nor did the police property receipt for the hat contain any indication of blood. Smith’s blood was actually on a second hat — a black hat he was wearing at the time he was shot in the head. The DNA reports for the red hat also raised questions about the sweat stain attributed to Johnson. The initial DNA report on the sweat stain — which was supplemented twice without explanation — did not link the hat to Johnson.
When post-conviction counsel for Johnson discovered the discrepancies in the evidence, police and prosecutors claimed to have mixed up the hats. The Philadelphia DA’s office agreed that Johnson’s conviction should be overturned but stipulated to its reversal in April 2015 based only “on ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilty-innocence phase of trial.” Prosecutors insisted at the time of the stipulation that Johnson “agree[ ] to withdraw all other claims … including claims alleging prosecutorial misconduct of District Attorney Michael Barry.”
After obtaining additional discovery in preparation for retrial, Johnson moved to bar his retrial on double jeopardy grounds. Although the lower courts described the prosecution’s mishandling of the evidence in the case as “extremely negligent, perhaps even reckless” and called Johnson’s trial a “farce,” they allowed the retrial to proceed.
On May 19, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed, finding that the misconduct — even if not deemed intentional — was so severe that retrying Johnson would violate his constitutional rights. “Under Article I, Section 10 of the Pennsylvania Constitution,” it wrote, “prosecutorial overreaching sufficient to invoke double jeopardy protections includes misconduct which not only deprives the defendant of his right to a fair trial, but is undertaken recklessly, that is, with a conscious disregard for a substantial risk that such will be the result.” The ruling expanded Pennsylvania’s double jeopardy protections to include cases not only of intentional misconduct, but also reckless disregard for the defendant’s right to a fair trial. Two justices dissented, saying that granting Johnson a retrial was a sufficient remedy for the prosecution’s actions.
The court returned the case to the trial court with directions to enter an order granting Johnson’s motion to bar retrial. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas formally dismissed the charges on July 1.
Johnson is Pennsylvania’s ninth death-row exoneration and the sixth from Philadelphia. All six Philadelphia exonerations have involved official misconduct. Johnson continues to challenge his incarceration on other unrelated charges.
