THEOPHALIS BILAAL WILSON
“No words can express what we have put these people through; what we have put Mr. Wilson through; what we have put his family through; what we have put the victims in this case through, and what we have put our community through”. - Patricia Cummings, Assistant District Attorney
On January 21, 2020 the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, after tireless work by Phillips Black Project, Greenberg Traurig, LLP and the Philadelphia Conviction Integrity Unit, vacated the conviction and ordered immediate release of Theophalis Bilaal Wilson, who served nearly three decades in prison for murders he did not commit as a result of prosecutorial misconduct. In the words of the Conviction Integrity Unity of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office: “Wilson's trial was infected by serious prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, a critical witness who supplied false testimony, and ineffective assistance of counsel. As a result, he was wrongfully convicted of three homicides and sentenced to an unconstitutional mandatory life sentence.” (Commonwealth’s Answer to Petition for Post-Conviction Relief). Background about the case appears below.
In 1991, Bilaal was arrested for a 1989 triple homicide that occurred when he was just 17 years old. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole, solely based on the testimony of a criminal informant. James White gave at least eight conflicting statements before testifying that he witnessed Theo’s co-defendants, Chris Williams and Rick Bennett, shoot and throw two of the victims out of a moving van, while Theo drove a car alongside the van. Though the physical evidence refuted White’s testimony, the court precluded counsel from cross-examining the prosecution’s witnesses about those inconsistencies. The jury sentenced Mr. Wilson to life without parole and Mr. Williams to death, and acquitted Mr. Bennett.
In 2013, Mr. Williams’ conviction and sentence were vacated after his attorneys presented testimony from a forensic expert that the physical evidence was “incompatible” with White’s narrative. In upholding the lower court’s decision in 2016, the Pennsylvania Superior Court observed, contrary to the trial prosecutor, the “forensic evidence revealed that the victims were shot in the locations where they were found.” Williams’ post-conviction counsel also presented testimony from White and his mother about frequent, in person meetings with the trial prosecutor, who coerced White into confessing to and implicating others in six different murders. Those allegations led to numerous charges. In six instances juries refused to return convictions.
media
Theophalis Wilson, with his mother Kim Wilson outside the Criminal Justice Center after he was exonerated after 28 years in prison for a triple murder that took place when he was 17 years old.
Notes from the District Attorney's file suggest the sole eyewitness, James White, would not have been able to identify the victims in a triple murder without first being shown their photos.
