USA - Pennsylvania. Anthony Wright, who was capitally tried, was exonerated after 25 years.

Anthony Wright, who was capitally tried but received a sentence of life without parole when the jury split 7 for death, 5 for life on the penalty verdict, was exonerated after 25 years. A Philadelphia County jury acquitted Wright, Black, in a retrial for a 1991 a murder. Prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty when Wright was convicted in 1993, but he received a sentence of life without parole when the jury split 7 for death, 5 for life on the penalty verdict. In the retrial prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty after agreeing that DNA evidence entitled Wright to a new trial. DNA testing of semen found at the crime scene excluded Wright and identified another perpetrator who recently died in prison in South Carolina. Wright's attorneys say police pressured him into signing a confession and falsely claimed that a set of bloody clothes they reportedly "found" in Wright's bedroom in his mother's house belonged to Wright, when in fact they belonged to the victim and contained DNA from the actual killer. Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, said "DNA testing proved not only that Mr. Wright is absolutely innocent but also that law enforcement fabricated evidence against him." Grace Greco, the jury forewoman for Wright's retrial, said, "I'm angry. The evidence was there that he did not commit this crime. The city should never have brought this case." Wright, then age 20, was arrested on October 20, 1991 after police discovered the body of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old woman who was raped and stabbed to death in her home. At his first trial, police said he signed a confession. But Wright's lawyers said he was berated by police interrogators and that he put his signature on documents without reading them after police told him that if he signed them, he could go home. Police also claimed that they found bloody clothes that he wore on the night of the crime. Wright was found guilty but was spared the death penalty by a 7-5 vote of the jury. Two years ago, a judge tossed out Wright's conviction, relying on DNA evidence which found that semen at the crime scene did not belong to him. It instead implicated another man, a convicted crack addict who had died the year before. Despite these discoveries, prosecutors again charged Wright with murder and put him on trial. This time it took a jury less than two hours to find him not guilty. Judge Sandy L.V. Byrd declined to order Wright's immediate release from the city's Criminal Justice Center. Byrd said prison officials had a "process" for releasing acquitted prisoners that he would not contravene. Wright walked out of Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility at 5:50 p.m. the same day. Wright has been in custody since Oct. 20, 1991.