You don't have to be a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to have seen national news coverage of the six corrupt police officers from the 39th District who were convicted and sent to prison for the beatings, robberies, and frame ups of hundreds of poor blacks suspects, who were innocent.

Even Sister Betty Patterson, a fiercely religious elderly black grandmother who had never had as much as a traffic ticket was framed by the same corrupt cops from the 39th district.

This poor old black woman was so deeply scarred by the experience that she moved out of the city she'd resided in for so many years. In this climate of racism and injustice it is not at all difficult to understand how Timothy Rice, a poor, young 24 year African-American man ended up on Pennsylvania's death row,

A cop pumped five bullets into him on the streets of Philadelphia and then lodged a series of bogus charges against him in an attempt to cover up his crime. Timothy filed a lawsuit against the Philly police Department. In 1995, he was awarded $85,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Two months later, on September 1, 1996, he was arrested for the shooting death of two men in a bar in Philadelphia. He was arrested two hours after the murders.

Every single police procedure was violated in this investigation. The police seized his clothes and checked his hands for gunshot residue. They found none!

On the night of the crime when the memory of an event is most fresh, the police got eyewitness statements that the shooting was at close range and the shooter was a ‘Bald Headed Male.’ The eyewitnesses repeated these statements as testimony under oath. When questioned the arresting police officers, Jessie Staten, Detective Fetters, and Detective Picc testified that young Timothy Rice had a full head of hair on the night of his arrest. I ask you, can a totally bald man grow a full head of hair in two hours?

There was absolutely no motive given for this senseless murder nor did the prosecutor ever attempt to establish one. The most egregious procedural error occurred when Officer Charles Jackson seized the clothes of both victims. One victim was his brother Bernard Jackson and the other was Randall Rogers. He took their clothes home for two long days without official authorization to do so. Nor was there any official reason given for a cop who is a brother of a murder victim to disappear with forensic evidence essential to a murder investigation including a ‘bullet’ and the bloody clothes. The evidence should have moved up the official chain of custody.

A .357 magnum produces a powerful explosion and leaves a lot of gunshot residue, but there was not a single trace found anywhere on young Timothy Rice! The ‘bullet’ extracted from the body of victim Randall Rogers was conclusive proof that he could not have committed these murders. But the prosecutor Bill Fisher withheld the ‘bullet’ for well over a year.

In spite of a flurry of requests by the young defendant, the prosecutor adamantly refused to turn over exculpatory evidence, saying, "I will not turn over this 'bullet' because it will help your case." This judicial arrogance and indifference to the plight of a young defendant is astounding.

It is now clear why the prosecution felt a need to withhold evidence crucial to the defense. Recently, revelations found buried in volume 1, of October 6,1997, trial transcript, leaves little doubt that Timothy Rice was indeed framed. A bullet removed from Randall Rogers matched the firearm found lying next to Mr.Jefferson. In other words, this is ‘exculpatory evidence’ that proves the real killer COULD NOT HAVE BEEN Timothy Rice! Moreover, it shows it was one of the victims himself! Or the other likelihood is that they shot each other.

A Philadelphia Police Department Criminalistics laboratory report recently emerged but was never turned over to the defense. The report shows two bullet holes in each of the victim’s T-shirts. Yet the prosecutor claimed evidence showed there was only single bullet hole in each of the victim’s T-shirts!

Why did his lawyer put forth a flimsy and idiotic tale about "self defense?" Why did he convince Timothy Rice to forfeit his sixth amendment right to be tried by a jury of his peers instead of arguing his case before a lone sitting judge who sentenced him to death?

Young Timothy Rice told his lawyer that he was innocent and that the police set him up. A fair-minded jury could have found a mountain of reasonable doubt to acquit him of this senseless double murder, but young Timothy Rice never had a chance!

Copyright © Reginald S. Lewis 2003

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Young Timothy desperately needs your help to win his freedom. Without sufficient funds there is no way a young poor black defendant can fight the charges the state and corrupt police has lodged against him. If you're a law firm, investigator, or someone who could help him set up his legal defense fund, please write to him:

REGINALD SINCLAIR LEWIS, the author of this article, is a widely published, award-winning poet, essayist and a playwright on Pennsylvania’s death row. He is the author of two books of poetry 

Leaving Death Row and his new book Inside My Head are available at:

         http://iuniverse.com.com

        http://www.bordersstores.com

        http://amazon.com. 

His email is:ReginaldLewis2002@yahoo.com

Websites: http://www.survivingthesystem.org/Lewis_Reginald_Home.htm

 http://www.ccadp.org/ReginaldLewis.htm

 http://www.cafeshops.com/reggielewis

To read another of his stories about an innocent man on death row, click on Justice For Eddie Romero at:

Cell Door Magazine

http://www.911-Justice-PHADP.org/Edwin_Romero.htm

http://castleofhopeforlostsouls.org/theinjusticesystem/eddieromero.html