MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE
IN POTENTIALLY CAPITAL CASES (1987)
by Hugo Adam Bedau and Michael L. Radelet

Excerpt from Appendix A: Catalogue of Defendants
 

WILKINSON, ROBERT (white). 1976. Pennsylvania. Wilkinson was convicted on five counts of murder in the firebombing of a home but not formally sentenced because an appeal was immediately filed. In 1976, Wilkinson was released after another man pleaded guilty to the firebombing. An investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer indicated Wilkinson’s confession was coerced, and at least seven other people were beaten, threatened, or otherwise forced by the police into making false statements. One witness admitted he lied at the trial, and another man confessed (two others were indicted) before the mildly retarded Wilkinson was freed after spending more than a year in prison. The convictions of several Philadelphia police officers for civil rights violations arising from their “brutal and unlawful” mistreatment of Wilkinson were sustained on appeal.1 Wilkinson was later awarded damages of $325,000.2

Footnotes

1. United States v. Ellis, 595 F.2d 154 (3d Cir. 1979); Wilkinson v. Ellis, 484 F. Supp. 1072, 1091 (E.D. Pa. 1980).
 
2. See generally Miami News, Dec. 24, 1976, at 10A, col. 1; N.Y. Times, Dec. 21, 1976, at 20, col. 6.