A Philadelphia woman who spent more than a decade in prison for the killing of a World War II veteran outside his home during an alleged robbery was exonerated Thursday, prosecutors said.
A judge vacated the murder conviction for India Spellman, 29, for the 2010 killing of 87-year-old World War II Navy veteran George "Bud" Greaves.
"I’m just happy to be home with my family, and I thank God. ... I’ve been telling them for years that I was innocent," Spellman said outside the courthouse, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. "I feel like the prison system, it’s messed up. There’s a lot that needs to be fixed: living conditions, how officers talk to people."
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A judge found that prosecutors involved in the case failed to disclose information to defense attorneys, including the questionable record of one of the detectives who spoke with Spellman.
"Eight months ago, my office informed the court that grave violations of India Spellman’s constitutional rights – including violations that occurred when she was a child and placed under arrest and interrogated alone by a homicide detective who had an established record of misconduct regarding interrogations at the time – should move the court to vacate her conviction and sentence," Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement.
"After multiple additional hearings and filings by my office, a judge today finally granted Ms. Spellman the relief she is due and granted our motion to exonerate her completely," Krasner added. "Ms. Spellman’s release from state custody is overdue. I extend my deepest condolences to the family of George Greaves."
Greaves was shot in the chest and died on the driveway. Spellman was 17 at the time of the killing. Her co-defendant, Von Combs, was 14 at the time of the murder and tried and convicted as a juvenile.
Krasner cited evidence like a statement from an eyewitness who later recanted and said she never saw Spellman. Spellman's family has maintained that she was at home at the time of the killing, scrolling through Facebook.
Prosecutors also said Philadelphia Police homicide Det. James Pitts, who interviewed Spellman and Combs, has an internal affairs misconduct record. Combs told investigators he gave a false confession while speaking with Pitts. Spellman said the detective physically assaulted her during her interrogation.
During Thursday's hearing, Judge Scott DiClaudio acknowledged a written statement from the family of Greaves.
He then refused to let prosecutors read in court, instead choosing to crumple the paper and throw it away," the DA's office said. However, the statement, written by Myrtle Ryan, the closest surviving relative of Greaves, said she was "convinced that India did not murder Bud and am greatly saddened that she has become another victim of this incident through no fault of her own."
"We are devastated knowing that Bud’s killer has never been apprehended and that India has spent 12 years in prison for a crime she did not commit," she wrote.
