Three Innocent Men on Death Row in PA

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Reginald S. Lewis
Innocents on Death Row

Reginald Sinclair Lewis is an African-American poet, essayist and a playwright- On

PENNSYLVANIA'S DEATH ROW. His work appeared in countless publications, and
several countries. He has garnered numerous awards for his work, including three PEN
American Center Writing Awards for Prisoners. Two of his children's plays were
professionally produced. On death row for twenty long years.

He was in San Diego, California, during the time a 250lb pimp was stabbed to death
inside a seedy drug bar in Philadelphia, in 1982. On the day he was arrested, the
Philadelphia Police seized Reggie's black briefcase containing jewelry, bus ticket stubs
and other papers proving he had been in California but his papers disappeared.

His Court Appointed Attorney failed to call six witnesses to testify that Reggie wasn't
even in the State when the crime occurred. The Lawyer (who had a hearing impairment,
slept during the trial) and pocketed the money allocated to house the California
witnesses and the trial commenced before an illegal all-white jury, presided over by the
notoriously racist Philadelphia Judge Albert F .Sabo. The lawyer was disbarred.
One of the deciding factors that sent Reggie to death row was a 1977 conviction for the
murder of a New Jersey drug dealer. But a compassionate Judge recently allowed him to
reopen the case. What was found was shocking to the sense of justice. The Prosecution
buried the confession of the "Actual Triggerman"- (The State's "Star Witness") .The
lawyer represented the confessed killer (who was let out of prison) ,at the same time he
was representing Reggie. What does this mean? It's a "Conflict of Interest", which
means Reggie Lewis is being held illegally on death row! He has filed a civil rights
lawsuit against New Jersey officials for a "Wrongful Conviction".

One of the most brilliant voices from death row, he has published two books of poetry ,
LEAVING DEATH ROW and his new book, INSIDE MY HEAD, was voted among
"The Top 15 Books of 2002".

(Google him to find more. It will be well worth your time.)

 THE SAGA OF TIMOTHY RICE
by

REGINALD SINCLAIR LEWIS

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 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-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, and 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 and the police seized his
clothes, checked his hands for gunshot residue and they found none!

On the night of the crime, and when the memory of eyewitnesses are most fresh - they gave
statements .to the police that the shooter was a "Bald Headed Male". They repeated this
testimony under oath-that the culprit was a "Bald Headed Male". Even 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. 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. More egregiously, Officer Charles Jackson seized the clothes of his
brother Bernard Jackson, a victim, and those of another victim, Randall Rogers, and 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 was a brother of a murder victim, to disappear with a
"bullet", bloody clothes, and other forensic evidence essential to a murder investigation.
The evidence should have moved up the official chain of custody, but every single police
procedure was violated in this case. The witnesses testified that the shooting was at close
range-so why wasn't gunshot residue tested?

A .357 magnum produces powerful explosion and 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 "bullet" was withheld by the prosecutor Bill Fisher 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 likelihood that they shot each other.

In a Philadelphia Police Department Criminalistics laboratory report, (that recently emerged,

and the prosecution never turned over to the defense) shows two bullet holes in the T-shirts of
the victims. Yet the prosecutor claimed evidence showed there were only single bullet holes
in the victims' 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-
and instead, argue 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 !
 JUSTICE FOR EDDIE ROMERO

by

REGINALD SINCLAIR LEWIS

Several years ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened to hear testimony on why they
should declare a moratorium on the imposition of the Death Penalty in the State of
Pennsylvania. Since the hearings concluded, there has been no moratorium imposed on
executions. Several Pennsylvania death row inmates were granted new sentencing hearings or
awarded new trials. Three more were released from death row after they were found to be
totally innocent.

And only recently-there was massive media coverage of another Pennsylvania death row
inmate exonerated by DNA. But for same inextricable reason, the local and national media
have chosen to ignore the disturbing details in the case of an innocent Latino man on
Pennsylvania's death row-Edwin Rios Romero.

THE WRONG RIDE TO DEATH ROW

It was December 27,1994, two days after Christmas and Eddie Romero, 29, had been in the
mainland in Florida only days before the attempted robbery and strangulation murder of
David Bolasky, Vice President and Project Manager at Wallace and Watson, an architectural
firm. Bolasky also owned several rental properties in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Eddie and his co-defendants, George Ivan Lopez and George Ortiz Barbosa had been driving
around Florida partying. They did cocaine and heroin and drank rum. Lopez asked his
compadres if they would like to bring in the New Year with his family in Jersey City, New
Jersey- and without hesitation Eddie said, "Ta Bien. Bamonos." Most of his Christmases and
New Years were celebrated in the hot tropical climate on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico-
and the thought of breathing the fresh wintry air into his lungs and frolicking in the crisp
white mounds of snow for the first time filled him with excited anticipation.

They arrived at Lopez's sister's house on Decernber 29,1994, exchanged Christmas presents,
partied some more, ate, and slept. While there, Lopez's sister received a telephone call from
her son, Miguel Moreno, who lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Moreno was Lopez's
nephew. He asked to speak to him. He wanted to visit his Mamita, he said. Could he pick
him up? Eddie knew immediately that he didn't like this guy. He talked too much-IN
ENGLISH, a foreign tongue he couldn't understand. He was snorting too much of their coca.
And he couldn't even look Eddie in his eyes, which only deepened his suspicion of George
Lopez's slimy little nephew, who didn't seem to speak or understand Spanish-the native
tongue Eddie spoke. Miguel Moreno dropped off gifts for his Mother ,and on January 3,1995,
Lopez, Barbosa, Moreno and Eddie boarded a bus from Manhattan, New York back to
Allentown, Pennsylvania. They entered a pizzeria and placed an order for pizzas and sodas.
Moreno told his uncle he had to get back to his apartment at 625 North 6th Street to check on
his wife.

He quickly returned, visibly agitated, Eddie noticed. The slimy nephew pulled Barbosa and
his uncle to the side. They whispered conspiratorially, in english. Edwin Rios Romero
couldn't have known that Moreno was secretly plotting how to lure David Bolasky, his
landlord, into his apartment, so that Lopez and Barbosa could rob him. Nor was he privy to
the knowledge that Miguel Moreno was depressed and distraught over learning that his pretty
wife, a young Latino, had been cheating on him with David Bolasky, who showered her with
attention and lavish gifts and the privilege of living "rent free' in the apartment-in exchange
for sex. The thought of a rich white man screwing his wife was a fatal wound that burrowed
deep into his macho pride and sense of honor-and the potent combination of the drugs and
alcohol only heightened his hatred and rage. He wanted revenge.

Lopez, Moreno, and Barbosa suggested that Eddie wait in the pizza shop until they got back.
Eddie nodded, said, 'Ta Bien", grabbed his soda and sat down to eat his pizza.

Night had fallen by the time they returned. Eddie looked up as they rushed into the pizzeria.
Sweat poured profusely down their dark olive faces. Why were they acting so fidgety and
nervous? He thought. He noticed how they kept peering over their shoulders. Their strange,
erratic behavior spooked him. "Let's go. We have to ride - NOW!!" Lopez barked. Outside, a
white van was parked at the curb. Eddie followed them as they crossed the street and jumped
into the van. George Lopez took the wheel. Eddie slid onto the front seat, on the passenger
Side. He turned toward Moreno and Barbosa in the back seat. "What is the matter with you
guys?" he asked in spanish, but no one spoke. It was pitch black inside the white Van owner
their shoulders he could make out the hazy outline of what appeared to be a large carpet or
thick blanket rolled up in the back of the van, along with a crumpled mass of gift wrapping
paper, a small larnp and two cardboard boxes.

He asked them what was in the boxes, and the other items, but Barbosa told him not to worry
about it. It was just some garbage they had to dispose of. Lopez drove to a secluded area-a
barren stretch of land, perhaps the city dump, though he had no idea where he was. He
watched them unload the items from the back of the van and dropped them unto the ground.
George Lopez told them he had to return the van to its owner.

Then they went their separate ways.

INJUSTICIA EN UN LENGUAJE QUE EL NO ENTIENDE

The murder of David Bolasky stunned this small tightly-knit community, and night after night
the horrific crime was the lead story that dominated the evening news. The Allentown
Morning Call Newspaper churned out a series of articles focusing on the crime and the search
for the killer or killers.

The relentless media coverage tossed a glaring spotlight upon the Lehigh County Police
department to solve this high profile murder of a prominent white businessman-and detective
Hanna, the lead investigator, was under enormous pressure from his superiors to make an
arrest in this case. They didn't care how he did it. Someone had to pay for this crime. Miguel
Moreno, the victim's tenant became a prime suspect in the murder. When Moreno was
arrested, detective Hanna and his partner , detective O'Donald, leaned on him hard. Moreno
gave no less than twelve different statements about what occurred inside his apartment and
each version varied in details. After he named his uncle George Lopez, Barbosa and Eddie,
as his co-conspirators, they were arrested and charged with murder. Barbosa gave a statement
implicating his cronies. George Lopez's statement was voluminous. Edwin Romero never
confessed to anything. He chose to remain silent. There was nothing that he could tell them.
He was not in Miguel Moreno's third floor apartment the day David Bolasky was murdered.
He didn't know anything about it, nor was involved in any way.

Detective Hanna assured Moreno that his wife, Lissette Ranan, would also be arrested and
prosecuted, their children taken away-and that they would both be executed. "You can count
on that", he said. The threats chilled him to the bone, and Miguel Moreno agreed to
cooperate with the police and prosecutor-but only if they left his wife and kids alone-and he
would be spared the death penalty. The interrogation of Jorge Barbosa was equally merciless
and cruel :"Listen, you little punk, you're gonna tell me what I want to hear-or you're
gonna fry, you filthy spic. Fry. You hear me?"

"Just tell us about Eddie", they barked at George Lopez. "We wanna know about Eddie.
Eddie!"

The Detectives didn't care about decorum, civility, the question of innocence or a suspect's
constitutional right to remain silent. The statements had to be tailored to Hanna's own
specifications to insure the convictions.

Jorge Barbosa and Miguel Moreno plead guilty to the murder and attempted robbery of David
Bolasky-and were spared the death penalty .But the Prosecution needed something more solid
on Edwin Romero, because not a single shred of physical or scientific evidence connected
him to the murder.

They had just the person: Danny Lopez (no relation to George Lopez), was a known
Jailhouse Informant who'd testified against countless defendants for the State and F.B.I., who
always awarded him for the information he provided. He was a wormy little coward who
gained the confidence of his targets before betraying them. His illustrious criminal career
spanned decades, and included arrests and convictions for offenses such as Aggravated
Assault, Rape, Drug Dealing and Attempted Murder. He was awaiting trial for attempting to
run over a Pennsylvania State Trooper during a Car jacking-which no doubt would've put him
behind bars for a very long time. The Lehigh County Prosecutor's office arranged for Lopez
to be Eddie's collmate. He tried to elicit a confession from Edwin Rios Romero but he
steadfastly maintained his innocence. At the trial, Danny Lopez testified that Eddie told him
that he was, indeed, inside Moreno's apartment at the time of the murder-testimony he knew
was false.

Eddie was unable to speak, read, write, or understand english, nor the raging storm of
unmitigating lies and blatant falsities that swirled about him. The court adamantly refused to
grant him an interpreter-nor did his attorney request one. Eddie was lost and bewildered.
Before his trial Commenced, a plethora of inflammatory articles portrayed him as a
murderous beast. The headline in the March 25, 1996 edition of the Allentown Morning Call,
read: SHERIFF PUTS STUNBELTS TO TEST AT MURDER TRIAL.

Eddie recalled how the all-white jury glared at him and his co-defendant throughout the trial.
But only Eddie was forced to wear the stunbelt and shackles. A stunbelt produces an eight
second 50,000 volt shock-far more powerful than an electric chair. A court officer sat nearby,
a cold white finger poised to push the button like a trigger happy cowboy waiting for the
slightest twitch or movement from the defendant. But Eddie was always polite, cordial,
respectful and threatened no one.

Eddie remembers one particular courtroom scene with a clarity: Both Moreno and Barbosa
kept pointing their fingers at Lopez everytime he heard the Prosecutor mention his last name,
"Romero" .When Barbosa took the stand, there was a heated exchange between him and the
prosecutor, who glared, shouted, as he turned furiously toward Barbosa then back at Eddie.
His chest heaved, his voice boomed thunderously, as his fore finger jutted out menacingly-
like a ballistic missile coming straight at Edwin Romero.

Prosecutor: Tell the jury about the involvement of Edwin Rios Romero in the murder of
David Bolasky!
Barbosa: I don't have anything to say about Edwin.

Prosecutor: Alright. Are you saying Mr. .Barbosa, that you will not testify at all about Edwin
Romero?

Barbosa: No.

The prosecutor then dismissed the jury and threatened Barbosa with contempt if he didn't
testify about Eddie's alleged involvement in the murder. But Jorge Barbosa said he had no
fear of whatever the court wanted to do to him-Eddie was innocent.

ACTUAL INNOCENCE

Since his unjust conviction, the Governor of Pennsylvania has signed death warrants for
Edwin Romero on two occasions-and he once came within days of being executed. Perhaps
it was a million pinpricks of agony and quilt or the thought that they could be responsible for
the execution of an innocent man, that compelled all three of Eddie's co-defendants to come
forward with actual evidence absolving him of any role and complicity in this heinous murder
.At a hearing, Barbosa recalled his interaction with Captain Bucarey, known from Maine to
Puerto Rico for eliciting confessions from suspects utilizing the most brutal physical and
psychological coercion:
...he was pressing me, he was pressing me, threatening me that they were going to give me
the death penalty. I am telling you, he was pressuring me, that he wanted to hear something
about Edwin, too. So I told him a lie, but I told him.

Barbosa backed up his in-court testimony with a sworn affidavit:

"I, Jorge L. Ortiz Barbosa, do hereby declare and verify as follows: In January of 1995, I was
involved in the murder of David Bolasky. The statement that I gave the Detective under
duress was not true... the truth is that Edwin was not even in the apartment when Mr.
.Bolasky was murdered..."

On March 10,2000, Miguel Moreno came forth with his sworn affidavit. Listen:

"My name is Miguel Moreno. I testified against Edwin Romero in his trial in the Court of
Common Pleas of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. My Testimony at his trial was not true. I
never saw Edwin Romero go upstairs into my apartment even though in previous statements
and at trial I did say that..."

George Ivan Lopez was the last co-defendant to come forward, on April 23,2003. Listen:

"...I cooperated and allowed Detective Hanna to coach me in what to say against Mr. .Romero
and to avoid further charges, and to also keep my 70 year old mother from having to face
charges..."
Eddie's incompetent Court-Appointed Attorney had to have known about this exculpatory
evidence at the time of Eddie's trial-so why didn't he effectively cross-examine them about
their perjured testimony? Why didn't he move to have Eddie's trial severed from Lopez' s?
According to US Census data at the time, there were 6,776 African-Americans and 15,001
Hispanic-Americans available to serve on Eddie's jury-so why didn't the court insure the
defendant that he had a constitutional right to be tried by a jury of his peers? Particularly if it
was quite unusual for a minority person to sit on a jury in Lehigh County -why didn't Eddie's
lawyer at least ask for a "Change of Venue", considering all the racially inflammatory media
coverage?

Why didn't he ask the court to appoint a translator, so that Eddie could assist in his defense?
Eddie desperately wanted to testify in his own behalf to clear his name. Had he been given
that opportunity, he would have said:
"Yo soy 100% innocent Y Yo tengo evidencia que claramente me exonera de estos cargos. Yo
no tengo absolutamente nada que ver con este asesinato. Yo no estaba en el apartarnento."

NOTES:

1. "Okay. Let's go."

2. "Mother"
3. "Cocaine".
4. "Okay."
5. "INJUSTICE IN A LANGUAGE HE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND".
6."I am 100% innocent and I have evidence that clears me from these charges. I had
absolutely nothing to do with this murder. I wasn't even in the apartment."
: