Criminal Law

Philadelphia Man Freed After Spending Nearly 40 Years in Prison

A man has been freed after spending nearly four decades in prison on a murder conviction in a 1984 Philadelphia fire attributed to arson under standards that prosecutors said would not support a conviction today.

Harold Staten, 71, was convicted in 1986 of setting an early morning fire that killed a man in a north Philadelphia row house in October 1984. Authorities said four men escaped by jumping from second-floor windows and Charles Harris later died of burns at a hospital. Staten was convicted of arson and second-degree murder and sentenced to life.

Assistant District Attorney Carrie Wood of the Philadelphia prosecutor’s office conviction integrity unit cited “substantial changes in fire science” and a report from a former federal agent and fire investigator that led officials to conclude that “there is little credible information that could stand up his murder conviction today.”

Read the source article at AP News

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