Daniel Gwynn found himself on death row at 25 after Philadelphia prosecutors said in court that two witnesses had picked him out of a photo array in a fatal arson case.
The photo spread had by then gone missing, and his trial lawyer in 1995 may not have asked for other proof of the supposed match. But appellate lawyers who spent decades pursuing his innocence claims finally unearthed the police photo - with a federal judge’s help - in 2016 and Gwynn was noticeably absent.
“He was nowhere to be found,” said lawyer Karl Schwartz, who joined Gwynn as he left prison this week after 30 years, most of it spent on death row in western Pennsylvania. “It shocks the conscience.”
Gwynn, now 54, joins more than 40 Philadelphians exonerated of serious crimes since 2016, and more than 3500 exonerated across the US since 1989.
“More times than you would like to see, it’s powerfully exculpatory evidence that has been either hidden or misrepresented at a homicide trial that results in a guy ending up with a life sentence, or worse,” Schwartz said.