Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Judge: no retrial of murder suspects due to prosecutor's misconduct

The three men convicted of murdering a drug dealer in 2002 had their sentences vacated in 2012 by Superior Court. Yesterday, a judge ruled the misconduct was grounds to bar a retrial.

The courtroom conduct of Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron, shown with Joanne Pescatore, cost him convictions. (Tom Gralish/Staff)
The courtroom conduct of Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron, shown with Joanne Pescatore, cost him convictions. (Tom Gralish/Staff)Read more

WHILE THE JUDGE said yesterday that it was "a horrible case" and that the three defendants were not "Boy Scouts," he barred the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office from retrying the men for the 2002 torture murder and robbery of a drug dealer.

It was a stunning legal victory for a trio of defendants who - according to trial testimony - wrapped their victim's limbs and mouth in duct tape, beat him, placed a heated kitchen knife on his penis and other body parts, and shot him in the head.

Defendants Aquil Bond, 36, Richard Brown, 35, and Jawayne Brown, 31, were convicted by a jury in 2006 of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole for what they did to Rohan Haughton, 25.

The West Philadelphia drug dealers' fates would have been sealed had it not been for the courtroom misconduct of the prosecutor who won those convictions - Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron.

In February 2012, the state Superior Court vacated the defendants' convictions, citing two instances of prosecutorial misconduct on Cameron's part during the trial.

It found that Cameron improperly tried to bolster the credibility of a key prosecution witness by telling the jury during closing arguments that he had helped solve seven murders, and by giving the jury the impression that the witness had the support of prosecuting authorities by calling to the witness stand Ed McCann, the chief of the D.A.'s Homicide Unit, who corroborated the witness' testimony.

Citing the same misconduct, Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner yesterday ruled that the District Attorney's Office could not retry the defendants because the double jeopardy clause of the state constitution prohibits a retrial when a conviction has been vacated because of prosecutorial misconduct.

"Our justice system is designed to protect not only the rights of the innocent, but also those who are possibly guilty when they are denied the elements of a fair trial," Lerner said.

The District Attorney's Office plans to appeal.

"These defendants are charged with a brutal murder, and two of them are already in prison for life for other murders. This office will be appealing the decision made by Judge Lerner today and we look forward to retrying all three in the future," read a statement released by Tasha Jamerson, spokeswoman for D.A. Seth Williams.

Jawayne Brown will be a free man if that appeal fails, as he is not serving time for any other convictions, said his attorney, Coley Reynolds.

Richard Brown is serving a life sentence for an unrelated 2004 murder. Bond is serving a life sentence for an unrelated 2002 murder and is also on death row for another 2002 murder, said his attorney, Michael Wiseman.